Paparazzi
by 4persephone
Summary: Co-Authored with Neondaisies. A press related accident brings unexpected clarity. Now if the two of them can just SURVIVE the revelations.
1. Chapter 1

It begins...or ends, depending on how you look at it, not so much with a bang as it does with a whimper. After weeks of dodging by a certain Tony Stark, the tabloid press the reporters are voracious for something - hell anything- that might sell better news covers. Tony's managed to avoid the flashing cameras for the most part, though the PR department has suggested that perhaps they should at consider a few carefully chosen one on one interviews. He has never minded being the center of attention. He does mind, however the day that his PA gets caught in the crossfire with unexpected consequences.

One day a line is crossed and the world as it once was is irrecoverably changed.

It starts normally enough, with them ignoring the Paparazzi. As usual there are numerous people trying to get close enough to get possibly valuable pictures. Happy's nervous about the size of the crowds, and as it turns out he's agitated for better reason than Tony's given him credit. One man - too young and stupid to know have learned any caution pushes against the barriers a little too hard, with his camera in hand.

Off balance and more than a little aggressive, he's trying to get an image of Tony, but he's only shoved by the surging group behind him, and he goes stumbling over the barriers.

Five seconds later his flying form slams into one Pepper Potts, who hits the ground with all his weight on top of her, dislocating her right shoulder with a sickening pop.

Pepper screams. First in shock and then in agony. Happy draws his weapon reflexively, then scopes the scene and goes to remove the intruder. He doesn't get to the gentleman soon enough, though. Stark drags the man off Pepper bodily and with a rage the press has never seen before tosses him physically back across the barriers. He doesn't stop there, though. He's following the reporter. A body is lifted and a body is shaken before the C.E.O of Stark Enterprises even knows what he's doing.

The man is mumbling and apologizing but Tony Stark isn't seeing or hearing any of it. He is aware only of the red in his vision and the women behind him who's still on the pavement.

Eventually though, rationality returns, and Tony comes back to a world that is shocked into nothing but silence and the flashing of cameras. When he looks down at his hands he's shocked to realize that he's got the hapless SOB bent over what had been an effective barrier and the kid is actually physically sobbing.

His hands are tangled in the guy's lapels and he's realizes he's toeing the line between 6 o'clock news inappropriate and outright assault.

"Tony. Tony. Tony." a voice breaks through eventually. Pepper has managed to get herself upright despite the advice of those around her, and she is trying to speak even through the agonizing pain in her shoulder.

The cameras capture it all in a fast progression of clicks. Her face, his shattered eyes and her unmistakable tears as she call him back to himself and then promptly starts to fall over again.

Pepper has never seen Tony like this, and frankly, it scares her a little. But the look in his eyes when he turns to her doesn't. The rage doesn't fade, but it does change and it touches her that anyone would care about her so much. That's why she can't let him take this too far. She holds out her left hand. It takes him a minute, but he eventually takes it, and her right along with it until she's tucked into her side like she's the President and he's a secret service agent that just saw her go down.

He leads her back to the car without another word, right past the still stunned mass of paparazzi.

The next day the pictures are everywhere. And there are videos on YouTube. There are a thousand different manipulations and bylines, and some of them are gentler than others. Some aren't gentle at all, but he's to busy to really care. The phone is ringing off the hook and Tony turns off the answering service after the 6ooth call they receive in under three hours.

Pepper is oblivious to all of it. She's tucked away in his second level guest bedroom, nicely strung out on Percocet. Her shoulder is inflamed and her eyes are hazy from medication she protested the idea of taking.

He's downstairs though and he's seeing himself on the news. And the look on his face is one he's never seen before. He has no clue what to say to a man who has that expression on his features. The world has just irrevocably changed for both of them, he knows, though she hasn't been awake or clear headed enough to realize any of that yet.

Pepper's footsteps are messy when she finally gets up- he can hear the way she's weaving as she walks - and her bare feet slap against the floor. It's not the purposeful clicking of heels he's used to hearing, but he's grateful nonetheless. She's moving slow right now, trying not to jar her shoulder and trying to stay upright. He has plenty of time to turn off the TV and meet her at the end of the hallway before she can attempt the stairs on her own.

She takes one look at his face and says, "I'm bored." Then she blinks, as if amazed she actually said that, and amends, "I'm tired of laying down. I am doped up, not on my deathbed. No more being stuck in that room." Then she blinks at him some more.

He sighs and nods, more out of helplessness, than anything else he supposes. He's just not used to watching her hurt like this, and he doesn't want to have to tell her no when she rarely asks him for anything. He leads her to the elevator and he does his best to squash his burgeoning need to just touch her as they take a slow, cautious, sinking ride down. He can see by the time they reach the first floor that she's beginning to regret moving. Her features are paling under the pressure of remaining upright, but she's gritting her teeth.

Heaven forbid Pepper Potts be unable to handle anything, he acknowledges wryly, and she wobbles to the nearest couch and gingerly sits before swinging up her feet.

He brings her a glass of water and her pain pills, which she glares at with an odd kind of drugged indignation. "I am. Fine." She enunciates the words with precision clarity. He has to hold the glass for her however, because she can't seem to stabilize her hand.

The love he feels...and knows he feels at that moment is enough to make him shiver. Somewhere in the back of his throat his subconscious mind starts to scream.

"It's a good thing I'm in pain or these would be making me nauseous," she says, though it doesn't seem to be directed to anyone in particular. "Jarvis? I want to watch a movie." She ends the demand on a yawn.

"Of course, Ms. Potts. What would you like to watch?"

Her face screws up in concentration, as if this is actually a difficult decision.

"Something stupid...The Three Musketeers. Nothing funnier than watching a bunch of men show some actual nobility. Besides, I always thought Athos was hot." Then she drops her head back against the cushion and pats the spot beside her gently. "Come on...sit down and watch with me. At least then I know you're not beating up reporters or making other similarly impossible work for me." She smiles a silly little smile that ought to look completely out of place on her face. But it doesn't, because he has the feeling that she's smiling it just for him.

He makes a face at her and she laughs...then groans and holds her shoulder. "Damn, I still can't figure it out." She mutters after several long minutes.

"Figure out what?" He asks as he drapes a lightweight cotton blanket over the curve of her thighs.

"He was not a big man," she complains. "Really, about your size. How could he have managed to slam into me so hard."

"He had a little help from his friends Pepper. And you're a lightweight. I mean what do you weigh, 120?" His hands were tightening into involuntary fists of agitation at his sides.

"You've never done that, and I've helped you climb the stairs. While you were drunk," she adds, as if he couldn't figure out the context in which she'd be helping him up stairs.

He knew he was supposed to understand whatever the hell she was getting at but he didn't have a clue.

"I wish he'd fallen on you," she says with funny little twist of her lips. At the moment she resembles nothing so much as a two-year-old presented with something she considered inedible.

He shrugs. "That is pretty much my opinion of what would have been the better option as well."

"You are pretty much a brick wall." She eyes him. As is usual, he's in one of his slightly too tight t-shirts. Then her eyes kinda cross and she rubs the spot between her eyebrows. "I am so out of it."

He finds himself grinning for a moment, then before he can speak the tides turn. And she's looking at him with eyes he's never seen.

"You tried to beat the crap out of someone for me." She announces loudly, as if it is a act that she finds particularly praise worthy. Then she snickers. "And me...I am so drugged, that I'm practically tipsy. I am so drugged that...oh what the hell. It's not like I'd do this any other way…"

Then she's leaning into his space and she's kissing him. And he's so surprised he can barely remember how to blink. The kiss is perhaps just a little sloppy, but it's so damn affectionate that something in his chest warms and uncurls a little. "You taste good," she whispers against his lips.

He gapes at her a moment, and then he opens up his lips.

This is the single stupidest thing they've ever done, and trauma and pain drugs aside, he knows she knows it as well.

That doesn't end the kiss though, or the heat that comes with it. Doesn't stop her from tracing his upper lip with hers, or nibbling his bottom one gently. He rebuts by chasing his tongue into her mouth, and tasting the smooth, mint coated ivory of her teeth. They kiss like they're longtime lovers. Like they've been doing this for years. He wonders if perhaps they have, and he's just failed to notice it.

She traces his upper lip with her tongue again then pulls back regretfully. "You are so going to feel like shit in the morning for doing that, even though I wanted to. And knowing you, you won't even tell me why you're being mysterious when I probably don't remember."

Then she closes her eyes and settles her head against his chest till the movie's over and only silence is left to ring in his ears.

When Pepper wakes up the next morning, she's alone in bed and her stomach is roiling. She bolts upright, remembers the reason her stomach is upset, but it's far too late to do anything but rush into the bathroom. There's not much to come up, so at least it's over quickly. She's rinsing out her mouth when she hears someone tap on her door. Before she can say anything, it opens and Tony's there. He looks wildly concerned, like she shouldn't be out of bed. For the life of her she can't think of a reason why she can't be.

"You shouldn't be up, Miss Potts. Your drugs last night left you quite floppy. Besides the doctors said at least another two days in bed." In truth her doctor had recommended two more days of light duty, followed by physical therapy, but Tony was all too ready to alter the orders to suit his own needs.

He knew Pepper and he knew 'light duty' to her would equal four hours instead of six before she drank her third cup of coffee.

She looks at him and can't quite figure out what's wrong with what he just said, so she doesn't argue. Not really.

"You wanted to clean my vomit off the floor?" she asks before tipping a capful of Listerine into her mouth.

Tony snorts. "I have a maid and you have full medical. Now back to bed, Pepper Potts. Before I bring you there myself."

She rolls her eyes and finishes rising her mouth out before replying, "In your dreams, Mr. Stark." But she let him take her good arm and help her back into bed anyway.

He manages to corral her one more day, but that's the best he can manage. He wakes up the morning of the third to find her already in her office, working furiously at the laptop keyboard as she chews on a bagel. She's shaking her head and muttering under her breath dirty words like 'pervert', 'lawsuits' and 'total lack of any grasp of reality.'

The Malibu Times celebrity section is on her desk, and there's a picture from the other day with her tucked almost under his shoulder. Underneath are the words "The secret real life of a Iron Celebrity?"

He doesn't want to look, and yet his fingers are itching. She looks at him in disbelief. "You won't believe what they're saying."

He shrugs because he can guess, and he knows he should be sorry. But there's something about that picture that he just wants to frame.

Pepper sighs. "PR and Advertising want to see us at three. They were saying something about how to best deal with this mess." Her shoulder is pulled up in a makeshift kind of sling. He realizes after a moment it's probably one of his shirts.

There's a real one upstairs, but he has no intention of telling her that fact.

"I need to go home so I can change. And shower," she adds with a little moue of distaste. "I'll just call Happy -"

He shakes his head. "Tell me what you need. I'll have Happy bring it to you. Right now the paparazzi outside the mansion and your house are...rather extensive." He knows she's hate the idea but he's not sending her back out among all those barriers and lights. Not if he's not going with her.

He wants to fly her there himself, or take one of his automobiles. She shouldn't be bearing much weight with a still injured shoulder. But he's also not a fool. He knows the press, and he knows how tightly they've latched onto this story.

Them going out in public now would be a terrible idea. Because he's not going to be able to keep his protectiveness out of his body language. All it will take in one wrong twitch and some poor soul was going to get punched in the face.

She closes her eyes and leans back in her chair. Her good hand rubs the ball of her shoulder, gingerly. Finally she sighs like she's made some sort of decision. "How long?"

He tilts his head. "How long until what?" Though he supposes they both know what she's asking.

"How long do you think this is going to last? Even with massive damage control efforts, how long before the press gets this out of their systems?"

He shakes his head and lies. "We're probably just the story of the week."

"God, what a mess." She reaches for a pad of paper and starts scribbling down a packing list before she pauses. "I really don't want to ask Happy to get clean underwear for me, Tony. That's just bizarre."

He sighs a little. "Put it all on my credit cards. Order what you need and we'll consider it my apology for being such an ass out there and getting us in this mess."

"Yes, lingerie charged to your credit card. That'll make everything seem on the level." She looks at him like he's grown another head. "You are not buying me anything. All it will take is one loose lipped accountant and they'll be hacking your credit card history at putting it up on the web for the whole world to see."

He spreads his arms. "Tell me what you want to do then."

She grumbles. "Look, will you just get the suit I was wearing that day cleaned? Along with whatever else I've been wearing? We're just going in to the office. That'll be fine for now."

He nods a little. "I can't believe you don't keep any spare sets of clothes here." She's been in his sweats the last two days because it's all that's available.

She purses her lips. "I didn't want to risk doing so. With all the women coming in and out all it would have taken was one of them being nosy to leave the wrong impression."

He wants to laugh and cry all at the same time. Because their lives are officially ridiculous.

"Tell you what...I'll get you some clean sweats. You give me everything you've got on and I'll make sure it's washed and ready for later."

He was just going to have to work very hard at avoiding the images of her in nothing but his second bathrobe that were swarming in his head.

Pepper turns down the bathrobe. She asks for the clean sweats he offered. Right now he's trying to get his mind off the fact there's nothing between her skin and his favorite pair of sweatpants. Well, _now_ they're his official favorite pair. She disappears into the bathroom for twenty minutes, and he spends the time arranging some transport with Happy.

Going back to her apartment is going to be painfully inevitable, but the least he can do is arrange for a time when it will cause the least amount of pandemonium.

He figures about three hours from now after her physical therapy appointment, assuming she's not too tired to handle the crowds. They'll go over together in the tinted limo, and they'll park in the garage.

As far as he knows the building is security code access only, for which he's incredibly grateful

When she comes out of the bathroom, she looks extremely uncomfortable. Not pained...more embarrassed. Her right arm is in the sling still, but now it's almost as if she's got it braced across her chest. She glares at him, daring him to say anything.

He doesn't say anything about her state of dress, he's too busy staring at her shoulder.

Her skin is black. He can tell because he can see it. Apparently the t-shirt he chose this time was bigger than the two he'd given her previously, because it was halfway falling off her shoulder. The skin that's visible even though the makeshift support is multi-colored - obscene against the creamy white skin beneath it.

He sees the bruise and he wants to do something violent. He may even want to scream.

He doesn't care in this moment that the reporter had been young and cocky. He should have murdered him anyway.

For some reason she relaxes, even though he's staring at her with murder in his eyes. She wants to say something snarky, like 'Maybe next time you'll be more careful when you go out in your suit,' or 'Not as easy to look at as you thought, is it?' But there's something in those words that would be too revealing. That she knows how he feels - well, that she knows a fraction of what he's feeling - seems like something better kept to herself.

"Now that you let me stop taking the Percocet, I'm hungry," she tells him. "I feel like I haven't eaten for days."

"Pick your poison. We can pick up take out on the way."

"On the way?" she asks in alarm. "I'm not going out like this, Tony. Not anywhere."

He crosses his arms. "You have physical therapy this afternoon. In an hour and a half to be more specific. And if you want to be allowed to go back to work, you're not going to be missing any appointments."

He realizes in hindsight it might not have been the brightest thing he's ever done to make it sound like such a challenge, but it's too late for him to take the words back.

"Fine. I won't miss it." She walks past him, not towards the kitchen but towards her office. "You can't miss what you've rescheduled. You're an expert at that."

He follows her down the hall. "Today, Pepper. Those bruises need to be looked at, and if you don't stretch out the knots it could cause permanent muscle damage to your shoulder."

"When's the last time you went to a doctor of any kind after coming back from one of your 'missions?' _Sir_," she tacks on, like it's some kind of nail in the road that'll she hopes he'll drive over.

He rolls his eyes. "You weren't on a 'mission,' you were assaulted by a reporter. Besides," He grins through his teeth. "Do you really want to play hardball on this, Potts? Because if you do, you're giving up any advantage you might have maintained when ever you try and lecture me."

"As if I _ever_ have any kind of advantage."

He raises his eyebrow. "Are you actually pouting?!"

"Just pointing out the flaws in your reasoning, Mr. Stark."

He shakes his head. "Do not make me make this an order, Pepper. Because this is your health. And I'm very motivated to win."

"I'm not saying I won't go. Just that I'm not going now." She makes it into her office, tries shutting the door on him despite the fact she knows it won't work, and picks up her Blackberry.

He follows her in. "I already tried to reschedule. If you miss this first one without at least twenty four hours notice they have a policy...they won't see you for two weeks."

He snatches the small computer out of her hands and pockets it before he even finishes the sentence.

"There's other physical therapists in this city. And I doubt you were trying too hard to find me another appointment. You are aware there's other phones in his house and that I know how to use them, right?"

He groans. "You are the stubbornest person on the face of the planet. Surrender and I promise I'll take you to your apartment to get whatever you need after."

"I. Am. Not. Going." She glares at him, and this time there's frustration and honest irritation in her eyes. "My hair is greasy, I look like a little kid dressed in their parent's clothing, and I have no clean underwear. I'm not going."

He looks at her for a moment, bends a little. "Please. I can help you wash your hair. We'll have underwear delivered from a boutique. I'll have Happy put it on his damn credit card." He leans forward until he's right in her face. "Permanent damage, Potts. Don't make me beg because honestly? I kind of suck at it."

There's something very familiar in the way his face looks when it's so close to her own. Pepper feels her irritation fade as she studies his eyes, and then his cheeks, his nose...his lips... His goatee is looking a little ragged, like he hasn't had the time to pay attention to it, but his lips look soft.

Her brow furls a little as she tries to decide why this matters.

She doesn't look away. "Happy doesn't know my sizes." She murmurs after a moment. She amazed that he actually blushes.

"I think I can manage to handle that one, Pepper." He blushes even deeper. Then he pulls back carefully and shifts his gaze to over her shoulder. "Now come on, let's get your hair cleaned. We can use the sink in the basement."

Pepper sighs and gives up on fighting. "You're an ass. And the next time I tell you I'm not qualified to patch you up, you're going to a doctor. You owe me now."

"Bitch moan whine whine. I'll get the towels if you pick a shampoo. And Potts, be reasonable about your limits. Avoid the stairs and take the elevator."

He thinks she mutters 'Bite me,' as she goes back to her room to get her shampoo, but he's not sure.

"Anytime." He mutters back under his breath. Going to get a stack of towels and stick them in his clothes dryer. Never let it be said that Tony Stark doesn't provide a full service boutique. Ten minutes later, she meets him down in his basement. He's got a chair tilted back by the sink and the edge of the sink already draped with a warm towel. She winces a little as she sinks back in the chair, and he frowns. "Does it actually hurt to lean back?"

"No..." And it didn't...much. She just had to get used to the extra stress it was putting on her shoulder. "I just feel like I'm going to fall over backwards. Not to mention that this is a little more surreal than I typically like my life to get."

He chuckles softly, removes her hair from its hair tie. "It's not that our lives have ever been typical...learn to roll with the punches."

Then he turns on the water and tests it for temperature, before carefully working his hand in and spreading the light red tresses. "Tell me if I'm too rough," he mutters as he lifts up a glass.

The water is warm on her scalp, but not so hot that it's actually unpleasant.

She watches him, because her only other option is to not watch him, and that seems a little dangerous. Besides, he's got that glint in his eye that she usually associates with some brilliant new creation he's planning to sink all of himself into.

For Tony, creation isn't so much an act of will as it is an act of biology. Everything he makes has some element of him in it, like some strange family resemblance.

She gently chews on her bottom lip as she stares at his mouth. The last few days are hazy thanks to the painkillers he forced into her, but she remembers things. Until now she'd been willing to bet that certain things had been dreams. Now she's not so sure. She's kissed people in dreams before and never had any sort of recollection of what they tasted like.

He keeps washing her hair with a strangely rapt expression, fingers rhythmically massaging along the curve of her scalp. His hands are nimble and shivers run from the base of her neck all the way to her hairline. It's quite possibly the longest amount of time he's touched her since they met, and it's all she can do not to shiver at the intimacy.

"Thank you for doing this." She mutters, through a knot in her throat. " I couldn't really get my hair clean no matter how hard I tried. I guess I'm just not used to being dependent on my left hand for things."

There's something about hearing those words said in the garage while he's touching her that made her blush. And not a demure blush but an 'oh my gosh, did I really just say that, and did he take it the wrong way?' kind of blush. She quickly jerks her gaze away from his lips, sure that her inappropriate behavior had some bearing on what she'd just said.

He chuckles deeply, in the way that rumbles through her whole body. And she doesn't know how she can be getting this turned on by just his hands on his scalp and his voice above her head.

"Almost done?" She stutters. "Don't want to be late to Physical therapy."

"Someone's eager to go all of a sudden," he comments, briefly looking away from her hair to meet her eyes. She tries not to notice the hint of a smirk hiding in his smile. Tony Stark has spent too many hours in front of his mirror perfecting that look; she knows because she's caught him at it. It should not work on her the way it is.

"Did I kiss you?" she blurts, and then she plants her left hand over her face to cover her embarrassment. 'Damn it, when did I give my brain permission to take a vacation?'

He blinks and a slow smiles creeps across his face. "If you had, Potts, I'd like to think you'd remember."

"Yes, make fun of the drugged woman's memory," she snaps at him. "Are you done yet?"

"No." He tells her without a hint of apology, and then, for a moment, she gets the distinct feeling that he's staring through the towel that's covering her chest. "But you're right about being late to therapy, so we can finish this conversation when you're through."

"What conversation? Apparently I'm having drug-induced hallucinations. I wouldn't say dreams, because that implies having a pleasant time."

"The conversation where you imply that you have to be totally drugged up on medication before you finally work up the courage to lean over and kiss me." She has absolutely nothing to say to that, because she's pretty sure that he's confirming that she kissed him earlier.

And she's also sure she's being condemned for her timing.

He turns off the water and steps back from the sink.

"As I said we'll talk about it after your appointment." Then he's walking toward the elevators with an unreadable expression covering the whole of his face.

Pepper rubs her hair dry with one hand as she watches him leave. It's too bad she said anything. She really wasn't quite ready for him to stop yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Her therapy goes well, though Tony insists on sitting in the waiting room through it

Her therapy goes well, though Tony insists on sitting in the waiting room through it. It's ridiculous to think he's out there, but he's quietly stubborn and she doesn't have the energy to fight him. The therapist is a kind, plain faced woman with a humorous bedside manner and firm yet supple hands.

"You really need to be stretching this two to three times daily," she says as she begins her examination of Pepper's enflamed shoulder. "I know it will hurt at first, but not doing so will hugely slow your recovery. Not to mention over-tense the muscles." The woman tries very hard to look uninterested as she asks the next question. "So...can you find someone at home to help with some take home exercise, or should I schedule you a home nurse?"

Pepper catches the way the woman's eyes drift back in the direction of the waiting room and she can feel the curiosity the other woman in trying to suppress. 'Great. And this is how it's going to be everywhere.'

For some reason Pepper finds that idea inexpressibly annoying. "I'm perfectly capable of managing on my own. I'm afraid that reporters throwing themselves at my employer is a very common occurrence. Of course, most of the time they have much better aim."

The interjection of humor at the end is intentional. She hopes the woman will take the hint and let the matter drop. Besides, she admits to herself, if she were the woman she'd probably have asked the same question too. Regardless of what she may or may not have seen on cable TV. The therapist frowns. "Alone isn't an option. You need to do Range of Movement exercises several times a day, as well as some strength building work as soon as you're able. I'm sorry, but some work just requires the presence of two…even Iron Man couldn't manage the exercises I'll be giving you alone."

The woman takes her arm and lifts it till Pepper starts to wince, then she scribbles number down on the clipboard she brought in with her. "At the beginning especially the joint needs supported 100 percent rotation, or you could actually tear a muscle or ligament, which would mean you'd need surgery."

Pepper sighs. "Fine. I'll find someone. Just give me a printout of the exercises and a list of possible providers and I'll look into it tomorrow."

The woman nods, but Pepper can tell she's worried. "It would be no problem to find you a home nurse myself, Ms Potts. It's a service that's just part of our fees. In my experience it's best to have regular visits from a trained professional anyway if you aren't around other people who can help with the day to day to day tasks I'm sure you've learned to take for granted." The woman probes gently with her fingertips in one spot in particular, and Pepper lets out a low hiss that could be pain or relief. "I know you have a reputation of being a go-to type of person, and that's admirable, but you need to make sure that you understand this injury will require you to change your lifestyle for awhile. A dislocated shoulder is no joke, it disrupts your whole body's sense of stability."

"I understand," Pepper says in a tone that ought to be the end of the discussion. She has a feeling that the next couple of weeks are going to be long and hard for reasons other than the media. She's always hated being sick, and she gets the feeling the experience of the next few weeks are going to more frustrating than any previous challenge she's faced. "How long can I expect recovery to take? I mean if we're speaking realistically?"

"Optimistically? About three months until you're totally back to wherever you started. Assuming you do you your exercises properly and know your limits? You can _start_ using your shoulder semi normally in five to six weeks. That's the best you're looking at though, and that assumes we don't run into any problems like torn muscle or serious nerve injury."

Pepper wants to bang her head against a brick wall. "On second thought, you'd better give me the number of a couple good home-based agencies." There was no way that she is going to impose on Tony for two or three months. It will drive them both crazy.

They need a certain amount of distance in their relationship. It's what keeps them acting like…well…acting like _them._

The nurse continues. "Here at the beginning I'd like to see you at minimum three times a week. Once the bruising goes down and you've got most of your full range of motion back, you'll be allowed to cut back to at home therapy. You'll be thoroughly tired of this place by then, though I guarantee you'll miss the massages I'll be providing when you first arrive." The woman finally sets down her clipboard and tugs gently on the edge of Pepper's sling. "Speaking of which that's what we're going to do today. I need to loosen the muscle and check the progression of your bruises. That way when you come back next time we'll know quickly you're healing and exactly how much the bruises you do have are effecting your current mobility."

"I am definitely going to need that phone number," she mutters as she lays down, trying not to wince at the insistent pressure. 'Three months and an apartment on the seventh floor of a building with no elevators.' This was going to be a _nightmare_. "Definitely."

Twenty minutes later, she's actually on the verge of relaxed, though her right arm is throbbing from her neck all the way down to her wrist, and she feels a little loopy. She hadn't realized until the muscles started to loosen how tight they'd gotten in the first place, or how that lack of balance had effected the whole of her body.

"I suggest you go home and take some muscle relaxants," the woman informs her with a smile as she helps her up from the table. "Because you're riding a happy stress hormone rush, but it's going to wear off."

'No way in hell.' She warns herself quite sternly. She can't trust herself worth a damn when she's on Percocet apparently. The fact she's currently holding a rain check from her boss about the fact that she had kissed him while under the influence is enough for her to enforce her own life long sobriety.

Still, she is tired, and the throb in her shoulder is getting worse. She wonders, for a just a moment, how much of a chance she has if she begs to get Tony to let her spend the rest of the next week at her house. Yes she might have to leave the office in his hands, but how bad could the outcome of that really be?

She thinks about it a moment. Realizes just what she's thinking. Decides she must be a little drugged out still anyway to even be considering the option. "Can you prescribe anything else?" she asks, just in case her chances are exactly what she thinks they are - close to nil. "I mean not to complain, but it hurts to even stand and the Percocet they gave me last night at the ER makes me more than a little hazy."

The therapist shakes her head. "I'm sorry no. I do the physical exercises but I don't handle pain control. If your narcotics are causing you issues I suggest you call your doctor... he or one of his partners is usually on call and willing to help with that problem. Now off you go, I'll see you the day after tomorrow for our next round of therapy. Just make sure in the interim you get lots of sleep and take it easy."

'Yeah right. Take it easy.' She wonders if the woman can give her a sick slip that will help her avoid important impromptu discussions. Her life would just be so much _easier_ if she could call in sick from it for at least a week at minimum.

"Day after tomorrow. Right." Pepper reaches for her Blackberry before she realizes that she doesn't have it with her: it's still in Tony's pocket. "Oh, and can I get an actual sling?" She feels silly walking around in Tony's clothes as it is. Using one of his shirts as a sling is too much like carrying one around as a security blanket.

"They didn't give you one at the ER?" The therapist sounds stunned as she starts digging through the exam room's low cupboards. "That's strange…though I might have a used or backup one here."

A few seconds later she produced a slip of fabric. Unfortunately for Pepper it's hot pink with little frogs all over the sides.

"It's a juvenile model but I think with a little modification we might be able to make it work for now. I'll order another before I go tonight and have it shipped over to your residence first thing in the morning…"

Pepper sighs and look at what she's been using. "I think I'll stick with the Tony-Stark modified model for now. Frogs just aren't my preferred fashion statement."

Pepper's getting phone numbers for in home nursing from the receptionist when Tony comes up behind her with her coat. She lets him help her into is as she takes the paper the woman gives her, then she turns to leave with him as if this is absolutely normal. And in a way it is. The setting is different, but she's used to being at his side.

"Anything in particular I should know?" He asks, as they walk from the building to his limo. His hand is around her waist and he's lending his weight as a leaning post of sorts, for which she's terribly grateful.

She's tired. So tired all of a sudden, that it almost doesn't bear contemplation.

Still he has asked a question, and she does her best to answer it. She waves a stack of papers with the free hand that is actually working. "I have another appointment here at the clinic the day after tomorrow and I need in home care because my shoulder's going to take two months to completely heal - give or take - and you hid the sling that they gave me at the ER."

"I'll drive you when you need to go on Thursday." They reach the step and he carefully helps her down.

She resists the urge to lean on him even more. "Also, if I want a replacement for the Percocet, I need to call my primary physician. Did I mention the fact that you hid the sling they gave me at the ER?"

He shrugs. "It may have been in the box of things they gave me when you discharged, Pepper. But I haven't really gone looking for it since you got to the mansion that first night." His eyes glitter with thinly veiled amusement. "And what's wrong with your Percocet? As I seem to remember from the last few days, you've had absolutely no complaints of pain since you got home..."

He helps her settle into the back of the limo. "Also, I've already hired a nurse to come out every day. She can train me how to do what exercises you need help with on the evenings she can't be there."

She frowns at him severely and scoots over so he can climb in. "I'm not living with you for two months, Mr. Stark," she says in her 'you're my boss so stop being nice to me' voice.

Tony chuckles. "Yes, well, you're also not living alone in your apartment when you've already established you can't even wash your hair without me being there to help you."

He leans back against the seat in the limo and raises an eyebrow. She stares at him for a moment, then starts to glower.

"That's a low blow." She informs him after a moment.

"It's also the truth," he says without the slightest hint of apology. "Look - this doesn't have to be as traumatic as you're making it out to be. I'll refurbish the entire third level east wing to your tastes and I'll even add in a second kitchen. You'll have your own personal space."

'Which you will invade whenever and however you want to.' Her subconscious whispers back at him sardonically. She sighs very deeply and went with the reasoning route, hoping for better luck. "Tony, as far as the gossip-reading public is concerned, we're lovers. I'm _not_ moving in with you. It will only add to the frenzy."

"You care far too much about appearances," he tells her bluntly. "Why don't you be more concerned with you health and getting better for the time being? You can kick their presumptuous asses when you're back on your feet, but right now you have to put your energy toward just getting better."

He frowns, as she shifts, just a little uncomfortably. The seat is uncomfortably curved against the slope of her back. "Besides, you need to start learning to put less stock in what people might think is real and start focusing on the literal truth of the matter sometimes."

"Like the fact that we're _not_ lovers and so I'm not going to move in with you?" She says it with annoyance and no small amount of sarcasm. It's like he's being willfully blind to how dangerous staying at the mansion could be for both of them.

Tony sighs, leans forward a little. Reaches past her shoulder and digs into a small compartment, from which he produces a small pillow. "Lean forward a little, you're wincing every time Happy as much as looks at a speed bump. This will help absorb the shock and stop the spasms."

And the little silk cushion _does_. Which for some reason she doesn't understand, still annoys her tremendously. "I'm not moving in with you," she informs him like she's speaking to a very small child. "Not for a week, and most certainly not for three months."

He raises his eyebrow at the stubbornness in her voice and pulls back to pull open the wet bar. "Soda, juice or ice water, Pepper? You need to stay hydrated while you're healing."

His voice is the one of a man who refuses to lose a battle by refusing to even enter it.

And that just defeats her, because she can't win an argument he won't have. "I'm not moving in with you." This time it sounds like a whine. And she hates herself for how tired and ready to surrender she knows that she sounds.

"So..." Tony asks conversationally. "Are we going to your apartment to get you some clothes first, or do you want to stop along the way and get something to eat?"

"First?" she asks suspiciously. He still hasn't actually agreed with her. "What exactly happens _after_?"

"We stop and get you anything else you might need at the pharmacy, and then I need to make a quick stop at the office to forward my mail from Stark industries."

"Where are you forwarding it and why?" she asks, still highly suspicious. Tony's actually managed to divert her away from the subject, at least for the moment. She doesn't like where this conversation is going, and hates that she can't seem to derail it.

Tony shrugs, "Just back to the mansion. It will spare us the trouble of commuting and losing half of the workday. Even with your now enforced limit of eight hours of work a day, you're still going to be wearing out easily the first few weeks."

Tony informs her of all of this with a casual sort of authority as he locates two glasses. He opens the minfridge again and pours himself two full fingers of his favorite kind of brandy. "You still haven't told me what you want to drink, Pepper."

"So what? You're going to force everyone else to commute to the mansion like you're some modern day Quasimoto? Be realistic, Tony – you are running a _business_."

He doesn't look in the slightest bit dissuaded. "I'm the boss. Besides have you seen my house? Notre Dame is a pit next to my view. They'll all be begging for sanctuary."

She's losing the battle, and what's worst is she knows it. Still if she has to go down, she can at least go out fighting.

"This isn't going to help matters at all, Tony. You're overreacting. You don't want me working? Fine, I'll take a two month vacation, we'll get you a temp, and you can go into the office every day and project the illusion that someone with an ounce of sanity is running Stark Industries."

He shakes his head. "This is just for the first two weeks or so. We'll renegotiate going back to headquarters when you're progressed in therapy." He swallows the last of what's in his glass and sets it down at his feet, pining her to her spot on the seat with a look that's one quarter grim determination and three quarters poorly veiled apology. "You are _not_ disappearing, Pepper. For one thing you're going to need help. And for another, well frankly I'd rather shoot us both in the head than hire some dumb ass temp who has no clue what they're doing. They'd only screw up your file system and leave you bitching about the mess they leave behind every other minute for the next six months running."

"You're not listening to me." She says the words on a hiss.

He pours himself a shot of whiskey and throws it back. "No, I'm listening all right, I'm just overriding you because your independence is overriding your good sense. For God sakes Pepper, I'm trying to take care of you here. I know it's kind of against your nature, but could you maybe just humor me. Even a _little_?"

"Give me some credit. I'd hire someone with a level of competence." She rolls her eyes. "As for negotiating, I'm _not_. There is no discussion. You cannot force me to live with you, Tony. That's called 'kidnapping' and yes, they probably even arrest genius billionaires for that."

She's weakening now, though, and she knows it. Because Tony almost never _asks_ for anything. And a part of her knows he's right. Tony seems to know that too, because his next response is to lean forward and cover her lips with his own, rather than argue any further. Pepper freezes, swamped by the familiarity of his lips against hers. She can't think, can't decide what to do, and that's her downfall, or at least more than half of it.

The other portion is her curiosity. After all, Tony at least has some memory of their first kiss.

Her mouth instinctively opens against his and she leans into the space between them. His goatee is rough against her chin and upper lip, and it leaves her skin tingling where it brushes against her. She tangles her left hand in his hair and tightens her grip so that she can hold him and kiss him at her leisure.

He tastes faintly of brandy, and cinnamon Tic-Tacs, and something else she can't name but would now recognize anywhere.

His hand is also stroking her waist line, one finger teasingly curving just under her breast. She finds her chest heaving slightly, just at that one contact. He pulls back a little and looks at her smugly.

"They're now we're even. The first move was yours. The second is officially on me."

He leans forward then, and knocks on the window. "We need to stop for food, Happy."

He grins at her over his shoulder. "So tell me Pepper, how hungry are you anyway?"

She groans a little, closes her eyes, and leans back against her seat.

The ride to her apartment takes perhaps thirty minutes. They get tacos on the way over, and she's amazed how good they taste. When they get to her block she's absolutely shocked to see the crowd in the parking lot of her building. The sheer numbers are a little astounding.

There are press trucks in main lot and spilling onto the street. Not to mention an entire group of waiting reporters on the yard next to the security gate. Tony whistles a little at the sight. "Are you sure you don't just want to go the credit card and website delivery route? Because I have to tell you, the natives are bunched together and looking pretty restless to me."

She wants to nod her head, but forces herself to shake it. "What - and have these idiots reporting tomorrow that I'm shopping for my wedding trousseau? I think not." Even Pepper is a little dazed by the crowd, but she's also sickly horrified by the spectacle. She looks at Tony, gesture to the crowd. "You know that there's no way in hell they haven't tried to interview your employees for information about us, right? This is absolutely ridiculous."

There was nothing to find. So what was with all these loonies?

She was his personal assistant. A glorified secretary-slash-gopher. She wasn't a movie star, or a model, or some kind of mysterious foreign dignitary. For years she'd been the background of pictures; it wasn't even as if she were anyone new. She can't figure out this mad obsession. "What is _wrong_ with these people?" She asks out loud after a moment. "I mean doesn't anyone in this whole stupid country have lives of their own? Because I don't get this fascination with ours."

Tony laughs. "Have you _looked _at yourself in the mirror or us in any pictures, Potts? Because if you have and you don't get the problem, than I really can't help you."

She growls in irritation and counts the number of news trucks. There are at least six out there at present, along with at least two dozen interviewers from various newspapers and magazines.

"Fine," She concedes, "You're rich and handsome, I get the attraction there...they don't know you after all, so they don't know how big of an asshole you are." She watches as limo slowly pulls through the crowd. "Still…it seems a little silly. I mean it's just the way you look."

"I said have you looked at _you,_ Pepper. Not at me. The media's already halfway bored with me these days. I am _not_ the main attraction."

She looks at him over her shoulder as if he's crazy before returning her attention to the mad crush outside. "Me? The one always in the background of the pictures, usually carrying something of _yours_? You are out of your mind."

He sighs very deeply, leans back against the headrest. "I'd do a Google search, Pepper. I think the stuff they have on the internet would surprise you." He doesn't want to admit that half of the new media that's surfaced is a direct result of him punching out that reporter the other day, but it's probably still the truth.

The woman in front of him is being deliberately blind, though, and it makes him want to strangle her almost as much as he wants to kiss her.

She just doesn't…won't see certain things. And he can't force her to without blowing his own needed temporary cover.

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts is _beautiful_. She always has been. Albeit she has a tendency to play the trait down quite a bit because she thinks it impairs her ability to look professional. Her reputation in the business community is also far more than she gives herself credit for, though, and he's tired of towing this line she likes to dangle whereupon he's the handsome prince and she's some kind of deliberately played down Cinderella.

They are two smart, successful, attractive people, and the fact he's never showed a hint of real emotion toward any other woman in his life just made the display of the other day all the more compelling for the media to stick its nose into.

He knows exactly why they're obsessed. Because he'd played his hand in a crisis and shown the world he was in love. It's unfortunate and embarrassing and she is never going to forgive him if she ever watches the tapes they took from the scene of the accident and figures it out.

Beside him, Pepper snorts in distain - her thoughts obviously out of sync with his. "No doubt. I'm not sure I'm up for those sorts of surprises though, if it's all the same to you." Then she sighs and leans back against the seat. "Maybe hiding for the next two months isn't a bad idea after all. Someone should catch on when you're out all the time and I'm not that it's nothing but speculation and rumors."

'Like hell they will.' Not with the tapes still circling in the media. 'They'd watch me try and be good while she's gone and make claims that I'm _moody_. Which I probably would be.' He shakes his head to the negative. "You'd go nuts in a week, Pepper. And the company would end up in shambles. Besides you don't strike me as the type who's inclined to run when the water gets a little deep."

Happy pulls into a parking spot in the basement garage. He drops the window between him and the backseat and looks over his shoulder. "Sir, you're not going to believe this, but it looks like some people from the crowd outside have actually managed to creep in behind us before the garage doors shut. They're closing on the limo at position four o'clock."

Pepper glares at Tony, as if this is all his fault somehow. "Stay _here_," she orders him as she reaches for the door, intending to avoid another spectacle. Well okay – maybe not, She's actually going to get out and she's going to give them hell. Because damn it this is her _home_ and they're on fucking _private property_.

"Six flights of stairs, Pepper." He ignores her and opens his own door. "Besides I can't let you go out there and kill someone. Even if I might like to watch. You'd overdo it, rip up your shoulder and be stuck living at my place for the next _six _months while you recover from surgery."

She snarls and slams her door shut again. "Fine. _I'll_ stay here, then. You get what I need." She reaches into her purse with the intent of handing him her spare set of keys.

He raises his eyebrow. "So you _want _me to pick out your underwear, then? Is there also a vibrator I should be grabbing from beside your bed?"

"I _hate _you," she tells him with fervor, as she opens her door again. They both climb out of the car to the light of flashing cameras.

"Suck it up." He whispers across the black hood as they stand climb out and stand on the concrete.

They're surrounded almost the moment they step out of the car. Pepper just kind of freezes until Tony works his way around the back of the limo to her side. She can see Happy trying to come around the front of the vehicle to help out, but he's having a harder go of it. The media isn't as afraid of him as they wisely are of Tony.

"Ms Potts -" "Tony -" "Any comments about -" "How long have you been seeing -"

The voices are overlapping each other and echoing in the parking structure until Pepper can hardly make sense of any of it. She looks up at Tony and frowns at him. 'What now?' she mouths, then winces as she unintentionally tries to shrug both her shoulders.

He see the winces and his whole posture changes as he actually slides himself over the trunk of the car to place himself immediately between her and the cameras.

Tony raises his voice to ring above the chaos. "One, this is private property and you are trespassing – so get the hell out. We're making no comment, and are taking no questions so you can all go away. Two, you've seen how I get when Ms Potts is injured, and she's still in considerable discomfort, so don't try and push her, and more importantly, don't try and push me."

"Tony," She mutters as she elbows him in the side, but she also doesn't argue with the small bubble of space his threat has just made them. She's starting to feel claustrophobic as she addresses the gaggle of microphones. "I'm sure I thank you all for what are undoubtedly kind wishes," she adds as Tony starts edging them towards the door to the building. Tony snorts in response and she shoots him a look that she hopes is just a little bit quelling.

"However," She makes her voice harden. "I recognize at least three-fourths of you all from various press conferences, and I have the numbers of your bosses. I will spend the afternoon calling your employers and then giving your names to security at Stark Industries. If you ever want to cover another press conference, I suggest you at least move back out to the street. Because you _know_ this is private property."

The ones from the serious media outlets take Pepper's suggestion, leaving a crowd about half the size behind. However, that half of the crowd didn't give a damn about ethics, trespassing laws, or Tony's fists. One man in particular is edging steadily closer. He's wearing a baseball cap the reads the San Francisco Inquirer. When he's within six feet's reach he lifts his camera over his head to take a picture. "So how long have you two been fucking like bunnies?" He leers at Pepper's exposed shoulder inquiringly. "And those bruises…you got any more in places more fun than your shoulder is to see?"

Pepper feels her jaw painfully clamp shut in an effort not to either 1) look shocked or 2) reply inappropriately. Which she really, really wants to, for the record. However, she's also certain that no one notices her reaction in comparison to the man still halfway in front of her. Tony's taken advantage of the man's raised arms to sock him in the gut and then kick his camera across the room. It's almost funny how the jackass folds in half, and Pepper feels more than just a little vindication, but she's also smart enough to know Tony's just getting himself into deeper and deeper water.

If someone presses charges, there's more than enough evidence to get the idiot arrested this time.

"Tony -" She reaches out with her good hand and tries to pull him away, but he shakes her off, albeit gently, and steps even more directly in front of her. His eyes never leave the face of the man on the floor, who is glaring up at him in a manner that's half impressed and half confrontational.

"So…Happy…What's the minimum sentence for criminal trespass? No I take that back...what's the minimal charge for harassment and attempted assault...because that's what it looked like to me. What did it look like to you?"

"I saw it too that way too, Sir." Happy calmly replies as he finally pushes through the crowd and comes to flank her on her opposite side. Happy then turns and _grins_ at the rest of the crowd. It is not one of the lighthearted ones that have earned him his name.

At least three men scuttle back a couple feet. And Tony chuckles. "So…anybody else have something they want to say?"

"Tony, I can't believe you did that," Pepper hisses as they leave the crowd behind. "I mean honestly…do you think that's going to help? More than half of them had video cameras!" They reach the doorway to the stairwell before Tony gets a chance to reply though, and anything he might want to say is delayed as she fishes one handed through her purse for her keycard.

"Jarvis." Tony speaks into his wrist as the door closes with a clang behind them. "I want the info on the security system analyzed and I want the tapes of everyone out there mechanically scrambled, if you can pull it off. If not I want the footage of their trespassing copied and forward both to the police and to the building's security."

"Already underway, sir. The building's surveillance is remote. A simple virus will remove all damaging video images should the police request a copy of the garage at this point. There will only be a few still pictures for ID purposes, and the sound on the files will be appropriately grainy." Pepper's startled to hear the AI's voice, she looks above her momentarily, but then she realizes it's actually just a attachment from Happy's cellular phone to a walkie-talkie that's hanging on the bodyguard's jacket.

She snarls. "Jarvis, remind Tony that you can't do anything about the cameras out there that were using actual _film_," She turns to glare at her boss, then, who looks entirely too self satisfied. "That was not helpful. You could go to _jail_ for that Tony!"

Tony snorts. "Let him try it. If that ass tries to nail me for assault we're going to nail him for harassment and criminal trespass. Then I'll buy and liquidate the damn newspaper he works for. I can afford it." Pepper has never seen him so angry in of his life- he's jittering like a man touching a live wire.

She appreciates the reason he feels this way, and yes, there's something about his behavior that makes her feel safe. But it'd be far more effective, not to mention socially acceptable, if there was an actual threat involved. Crude innuendoes didn't count.

It's like he's gone _insane _in the past few days and she still doesn't understand how, when or _why_…

She forces her voice to be calming, tries again to be reasonable. "Tony, you moonlight as a superhero. You can't have it both ways. You can't protect people and then assault the ones that get on your nerves. Not if you want to stay in business." She says it quietly, because it truly isn't her intention to hurt him, just point out a few hard facts that she suspects are probably going to be blared in the headlines the next morning. Something like "Iron Man's Iron Fists?" screaming across the front page of a gossip rag in heavy 80 point sans serif.

He turns on her in a heartbeat with undeniable fire. "My job is to protect what needs protecting. I did. If they want to make me out to be a dick for doing what any gentleman should do, well then I don't give a fuck. Let them do it. You wouldn't tolerate that kind of insult to my reputation Pepper, and I'm damn well not going stand around while they do the same thing to you."

Her eyebrows widen, at the steel and intensity. She steps back a little, not because she's afraid but because for a moment the intensity literally throws her off balance. Seeing this Tony stops before they get to the staircase, and she sees him breathe out, right before his eyes soften back to normal.

He reaches out a hand, awkwardly patting her good arm. "Look, I'm sorry if that made it worse. But I'm not sorry that it happened and I'd do it again. This why you are _not_ going stay at your apartment, Pepper. Because ass-wipes like him don't take the hint, and this building can't keep them out. And where does that leave you?"

She shivers at the implication, and then his hands sliding down her arm. Before she can even blink he is holding her hand. "Be honest Pepper, what would you have, done...if they'd refused to let you through? How would you have handled it alone?"

She doesn't answer him for a long time, just stares at him because he knows what she would have done. He knows it, and she doesn't want to say it because he's already too damn sure of himself. But he's not giving in, and it doesn't look as if he'll move an inch until she gives him an answer. "I would have come to you," she admits grudgingly.

There would have been no other option.

He nods at that. Seems to take it as the only answer. She doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, at the total lack of conflict on his face. This shouldn't be all right with him, that she's so dependant. It certainly isn't all right with her, even if there's nothing she can do to change it.

Tony drops her hand, runs his fingers back through his hair. "Let's just get your clothes and get out of here. Can you make it up the stairs? Or do you want me to carry you?"

There's no judgment in the question, no implication she's weak. Just the simple inquiry as to what she requires, with the implication that he'll provide it.

She's wonders when that became normal. Wonders how she came to take him for granted, without even knowing it was happening.

She wants to let him be there. Wants to let him protect her. Her shoulder is throbbing and she's mentally reeling from the stress of the day. Still though...between having her hair washed, and kissing him in the car, and the way he's regarding her so calmly right now, she feels like she's made as many concessions as she can stand to make before she loses herself completely. "Don't push your luck, Stark," she mutters quietly, hoping he'll understand where she's coming from.

Yes, she's hurt. Yes, she's probably going to tire out before they reach the top. Yes, she knows he knows that. She just hopes he also knows that she wants to be able to do as much of this as she can. It's never been in her nature to surrender quietly.

However, she's beginning to think it's in her nature to surrender eventually. Or at least to talk peace terms. Because by God she's so damn tired.

Tony seems to read all this on her face, because he tilts his head in bemusement. The right side of him mouth curls up in what might be the tiniest bit of a smile. He gestures to the first flight of stairs. "Onward and upwards then. You get to lead the way."

He says it with a leer, like he's looking forward to the ass view. Which he probably is, curse his sick sense of humor.

"I am so not ever kissing you again." She mutters under her breath as she starts to climb the stairs. "I hope you realize," she says as way to change the subject as they climb, "that you're only making my job harder at the same time you're insisting I take it easy with all this damned overreacting."

"Bitch. Moan. Whine. Pepper. How am I making it so much harder exactly?"

He sounds genuinely curious. Though she doesn't turn around because she doesn't want to know what his eyes are fixed on at the moment. Instead she conquers the next step in front of her as she answers the question. "Because now I have to find a way to clean up this mess without actually looking as if I'm involved in the clean-up efforts. I'm usually the one calling everyone to assure them that everything's fine." She's starting to get a little short on breath, but she presses on. "If I try calling anyone now, they'll probably just record everything I say and try to twist it into an exclusive interview."

He chuckles a little at that. "Pepper, everybody's probably dissecting our past history anyway. Every board meeting we've ever attended...every public event has been subject to scrutiny."

He doesn't mention it, but there are pictures from a certain fireman's benefit she's going to kill him for when she sees them. Not that he regrets the dance for a minute.

"God, how boring. Not to mention not incredibly insightful. Most of those pictures are us in the exact same position, just dressed differently. How many pictures of me standing behind you with your coffee in one hand and my Blackberry in the other will they need to look at before they get the point?"

Pepper sounds both disgusted and mournful, His feet pause on the stairs a moment and then he sighs. "Some things never change. People mostly see what they want to see."

For the shortest space of a heart beat she almost thinks he might be referring to her and not the reporters. She stops at the landing and waits for him to catch up, hoping for a glimpse of his face. "I just climbed these with no problem the other day," she complains. She's breathing hard, which pisses her off, and the effort of climbing each step with her right arm essentially strapped to her side is making her torso ache. All in all, this is much more work than she remembered.

"You dislocated you shoulder, Pepper." He reminds her chidingly. "It affects the way you sleep, the way you walk, heck it probably effects how deeply you breathe. I offered help when we started. The offers still open. All you have to do is take it."

'If only it was that easy. If only you knew what you were asking.' He doesn't understand dependency, or the way that it can destroy them, if they're not careful. "You just want to get your hands on me," she mock accuses, trying to lift the weight from the moment. "I know your type, Mr. Stark."

He waggles his eyebrow. "You think a lot of you charms. Has it ever occurred to you I might not be that easy a catch, Ms Potts. I mean you haven't even bought me dinner. So why should I put out?"

"My boss told me to take it easy today," she reminds him with a smile. "He barely let me get my own coffee at lunch. As for 'putting out.' Well you said the words first."

He snorts, "After you made the implication. I offered a ride out of kindness, and you're accusing me of looking for a reason to grope you. For someone who claims I'm the one who's the pervert you seem pretty good at assuming that every decent impulse I have is part of a grander plan that somehow ends with sex."

Three stairs below them Happy lets out a guffaw. Pepper had almost forgotten in the strain of the climb that he was even there. 'Oh shit.' Pepper's eyes close as she battles down a wave of humiliation. She is a _professional_. Happy is her _co-worker_. This is not the conversation she'd choose to let him listen in on.

Doesn't matter that he's heard hundreds like it in the past years. This is the first time she's actually responding out of more than just route.

"Well to be fair, Sir, you kind of have a reputation." To her surprise Happy actually speaks up in her defense. "Though where you're stashing the conquests lately...I haven't managed to figure out. You're getting tricky, I guess."

She breathes deeply, and relaxes a little at Happy's comment. There's no stashing going on, there's no conquests. Haven't been for awhile. "If I have sex on the brain, it's only because you bring it up in every conversation we have," she teases him in a whisper as she moves for the next flight of stairs.

He snorts softly. "Yes well I'm trying to be a little less self absorbed, Pepper. But that doesn't mean that I'm dead."

'Not by a long shot.' She was remembering more of that kiss now. As well as his hands as they'd wandered her back. "Yes. I've noticed." Her gaze lingers briefly on his lips, and then she flashes him a purposefully confident smile that makes him hesitate on the stairs.

"Now that's just not fair." He mutters under his breath as he follows. "I wasn't even the one who threw down the proverbial glove that night in the basement."

"No, what's not fair is you remembering I was in your basement, and me not." This time she pauses on the fifth floor landing. The climb had never taken her this long, not even when she was moving in, and she has to lean against the wall.

His hands settle on her hips from behind and then and his chin settles on her good shoulder. "You're right." he acknowledges a little mournfully. "I'll stop bringing it up."

Then he turns her, picks her up and carries her up the last two stories before she has a chance to complain.


	3. Chapter 3

She wobbles over to the couch and sinks down onto the cushions, leaning her head against one end with a tired sigh. Then she fights to keep her eyelids propped up under a wave of sheer exhaustion. "What is wrong with me?" She mutters after a moment. Wanting to cry with the way the shakes were trying to swamp her whole body.

Tony curses, low and under his breath, and digs in his pocket. "Get me something wet for her out of the fridge, Happy. Pepper needs to take a pain pill."

"I'm not taking any more Percocet, Tony. I mean it. We still have to meet with the PR team this afternoon and I can't do that if I'm doped up." Still, Pepper's almost willing to take more of the blasted stuff if it will help.

"PR can go to hell, because you look like it. I'll call and reschedule the meeting." From out of nowhere he produces a familiar prescription bottle and pops off the lid. "Just take them, Pepper. Happy and I can get things packed up for you easy enough. We'll just take out the suitcases and dump the contents of the bureau in."

"You're not dumping my work clothes in anything, Tony Stark." She doesn't argue about the meeting with PR. After today they're going to have even more to talk about anyway, and she'd rather have one meeting later than one today with another to look forward to. But she really didn't want to spend the day in a drug haze. "Can't I just take half a dose?"

He considers the option, then nods his head. Produces one of the pills and snaps it in half. "We'll start with this. But you need to stay still for a bit.

She wants to strangle him. "I need to go in and pack."

He shrugs, "Tell us what you need and we'll pick it up for you."

She groans. "Tony, I don't even know where some of what I'm looking for is."

She had hoped to be a bit choosy with her wardrobe, because some of her regular stuff she's simply not going to be able to get into right now.

She's also going to need to lose the high heels for at least a week or so, because while she doesn't like it, her balance is bad enough right now as it is without the additional footwear issues

"Fine. Look...I'll let you pack, but I'm directing. I can sit on my bed as easily as I can sit here." She's trying to negotiate, trying to offer a solution they can both live with.

He's looking at her as if he thinks she might be trying to weasel out of something.

"I won't touch a single piece of clothing," she swears, lifting up her right hand as far as she can.

He nods, bends to scoop her off the bed and carries her into the bedroom.

And she tries not to think about that. Tries not to think about the situation in general, because it's so far outside her range of the normal or the expected. This Tony - hell this whole situation - is something she's not used to dealing with. They've never been here even once, and they've known each other for years.

She's always been the caretaker, always been the one giving orders. Granted she tended to couch them as requests, well that or thinly veiled challenges she knew he couldn't resist taking a swipe at... Still, their dynamic had always been different then this. He'd rarely bossed her around, which was ironic, given the fact he _was_ her boss.

This Tony though...this Tony was calm and forceful and she couldn't bend him. It was like she'd acquired some kind of Jewish alpha yenta from hell.

"What is _with_ you lately?!" She mutters under her breath, tucking her feet in as they step through the door to her bedroom. "Because I have to tell you, I'm seriously starting to think there's a Pod somewhere back at the mansion."

He laughs, and she can feel the rumble of it in his chest. "Okay, Pepper, I know lack a few essential qualities to make me boss of the year material, but I'm hardly an ogre."

"No..." Pepper rolls her eyes as he sets her down on her bed. "But you have to admit that you're normally so...involved."

"You have a dislocated shoulder, Pepper. And you got it on my watch. Forgive me if I think that means I'm at least partially responsible."

He sets her down on the bed with a deceptive kind of gentleness, helping her sit back against the headboard without completely surrendering back her personal space.

"Tony, the only thing you're responsible for it sending half of your PR staff into cardiac arrest when those pictures surfaced," she said dryly. "The actual dislocation of my shoulder was just bad luck."

"You were in my employ and seeing to my business Pepper. It wouldn't have happened if the media weren't dogging my tail the way they have been lately."

His hands are reaching for the blanket at the foot of the bed and shaking it out before he covers her softly, fingers lingering, for just a moment, on the wrinkles he smoothes out over her thighs.

"So..." He draws a breath after he finally pulls back. "Where are your suitcases, and what do you want in them?"

"Button downs," she tells him seriously, trying to ignore the way she can still feel his hands stroking over her legs. "The less I have to move my arm the better. There's no way I'm going to be able to lift it over my head." Her bed is comfortable and Pepper snuggles down into it. She's missed her bed. "Sweats. Yoga pants. Pajamas. I'll need a couple suits. There should be a garment bag hanging in the back of my closet."

"You're probably going to have to do some shopping, Potts." Tony warns her as he starts filling her bags. "I know your normal work wardrobe, and it's not going to be exactly comfortable to get into or out of, plus a lot of it's confining."

He finishes up the sorting in the closet, reaches down to bring over an assortment of shoes and place them at the foot of the bed.

"Where are your Yoga pants?" His voice is brisk.

She replies in kind. "Bureau, second drawer down."

He nods, brings a suitcase over to the dresser and starts transfer sweats and other casual items over.

"My gosh...red, green, blue. I didn't think you knew what colors were."

She snorts under her breath. "Yeah well black goes with everything. And it's more professional."

"Boring." He shoots back over her shoulder. He pulls open the drawer beneath the one he just emptied and starts collecting the socks and pantyhose that are lying within.

"Well, you don't have to be bored for awhile," Pepper says with a wince as she tries to take some pressure off her shoulder. "I only have to wear suits if we go into the office." That's one argument she's willing to abandon before it starts. She's beginning to understand what a dislocated shoulder really means. She's half afraid to put on any of her own clothes. Tony's shirt, big as it was on her and soft as it was, was starting to chafe her bruises. "I think pajamas are going to suffice for a couple of days."

He nods and finishes opening the last drawer. Blinks a moment, then pulls it out of the chest completely.

"You get to sort through this one," he says very quietly. "I'm going to get something to drink. Tell me when you're done and we're good to leave."

Pepper can't decide whether she should be embarrassed or amused. Tony Stark, who's seen more partially dressed women in his lifetime than any one man needed to see, just ran out her door after being confronted with the contents of her underwear drawer. Pepper picks up a sheer camisole with one hand and decides that a combination of the two is probably appropriate. Given Tony's reactions to her today, she's willing to bet that it's not a generic female body he's imaging this stuff on.

She hunts through the drawer, pulling out the few front clasp bras she owns, and a couple of sports bras in addition to one or two standard bras. Given her therapist's diagnosis, she probably is going to need to do some shopping, unless she wants to ask Tony for help getting dressed in the mornings...

She wonders if Tony even knows how to put clothes on a woman instead of the reverse.

Of course, then she imagines Tony helping her take her clothes off, and she flushes. It's too easy to imagine now that she knows the size and heat of his hands, the tenderness of his fingers.

"Keep on track, Potts," she mutters to herself as she starts piling her selections in the suitcase Tony set nearby. Still, she admits to packing some of her more daring underwear as a concession to the heat still warming her.

At the back of the drawer is a box of condoms. She checks the expiration date critically. 'Yeesh...over a year ago.' She tosses them in the garbage in the bathroom before she pulls her monthly supplies out from under the sink. Tony can yell at her all he wants for moving around; asking him to pack her tampons is not something she's going to do under any circumstances.

She buries them under the clothes then closes the flap before getting back on the bed and calling Tony back in.

He returns with a cup of juice in his hand and another for her.

"Here. Drink this, food will actually negate some of the side effects of the Percocet."

She takes it and drinks, surprised by how good the sweetness tastes. Then she hands back the glass and studies the man who's looking over her suitcases. Tony's not as red as he was before, though he's still looking just the slightest bit uneasy, a little rough at the edges.

He looks like he's not sure what to do with himself, which she admits is a little odd. Her boss has always been so comfortable in every situation, that it's strange to see him this unnerved.

"So...are we set?" He asks after a distracted several seconds. "Because Happy has already volunteered to take all the bags and pull the car as close to the door in the basement as he can get it."

Pepper thinks. She knows that Tony essentially swept all her makeup and hygiene supplies into an overnight bag. She's got clothes, other essentials... "I'd like to bring a couple books with me." Jarvis has more than enough movies and music to keep her distracted, but she did like to read when she was free in the evening.

He nods. "Just give me titles. You're also welcome to use anything you like back at the mansion's library." He pauses and then looks at her in curiosity. "Pepper...why is there an easel in your living room?"

"I took some art classes in high school and college," she admits. "Something to balance my brain after using the left side all day, especially in college. I still dabble now and then. However..." She looks at her hand. "I think it might be awhile before I get to dabble."

"Have you ever tried sketching? He asks after a moment. "Because I have drafting board at the mansion that goes right in your lap."

"I never really had the patience for sketching," she says, and he laughs like she expected he would. "I like having a project in mind, and being able to work on it until it's finished. I do a lot of still lifes, that sort of thing."

He nods. "Have you tried watercolor pens? They're a little more portable and you can still get the effect without standing up for quite as long."

He seems almost earnest, she realizes after a moment. Like he's trying to find a way for her to bring along this part of her life as well. There's something strange and a little sweet about it. Like he's suddenly unsure of himself

She wonders if Tony Stark has ever felt unsure of bringing anyone else to stay as a guest in his mansion since the day he'd move in.

"Actually, I prefer charcoal to Prismas or Copics. A little messier, but I like the texture of it. And it's more forgiving. If you mess up you can just rub the line out instead of starting over or working around your mistake." She cocks her head at him. "I thought your interest in drawing was confined to drafting."

He shrugs a little. "For the most part it is. I took a few art electives in college though. My mom said she wanted me to try to occasionally get out of the garage and be just a little bit well rounded."

Which explains his art, collection, Pepper realizes, which is far more extensive than most people will ever realize. Albeit most of them stay in storage as if Tony can't bear to look at them with almost the same intensity as he loves them.

"Have you worked much with charcoal?" she asks, wondering at her motivation.

He shakes his head. "Pencils mostly. Though I admit I've always been curious about how that particular medium works with shading." He smiles down at her. "I suggest we continue this back at home, Ms Potts. It's getting late and Happy has aspirations of actually being home by six tonight to entertain a lady friend."

Pepper blushes, because she really didn't need to know that. "I have a case of art supplies under my bed," she tells him. "Charcoal, chamois, charcoal paper... If you're interested, my boss is cutting back my hours for the next few weeks so I have some extra time."

He snickers, then waggles his eyebrows. "I don't know, Ms Potts. Exactly what _else_ might I also find lurking under your bed?"

This is more the Tony she knows; he's gone from almost shy to outrageous in the blink of an eye.

She narrows her eyebrows at him just slightly and tries not to think about why she's actually relieved.

"My porn videos and my Playgirl collection," she slings back. "Try not to go cross-eyed thinking about it."

"No bringy any bunnies back to the mansion." He informs her firmly. "Or Jackrabbit...I don't know what they call the entertainers on the other side of the fence."

The grin on his face almost makes her regret teasing him back...but not really. "Just get the box, Stark."

He nods and does so with no further comment, which she supposes means he's actually at least trying to be good.

Ten minutes later she meets him and Happy in the living room, finally having abandoned Tony's workout clothes for a pair of her own. Her bags are all stacked by the door, and all there is left for her to do is pick up a small bowl off her counter and locate her tennis shoes.

"What is _that_?" Tony asks after a moment. Looking down into the bowl with a raised eyebrow as she clutches it to her chest.

"This is Cagney. And I can only expect the neighbor boy to be able to come in and feed him twice a day for so long."

"Cagney?" Tony asks in a skeptical voice.

Pepper rolls her eyes and tilts the bowl so he can see into it better. "My turtle. I can't find my shoes." She says it to distract him. So far he's gone out of his way to help her, and while she feels bad about using that against him, she doesn't want any arguments about bringing her pet.

"You have a turtle named Cagney?" There is laughter in his voice.

She snorts. "Yes. There used to be a Lacy, but she kept crawling out of the bowl. I gave her to one of the kids down the hall, they see each other on weekends."

He just laughs, and Pepper lets him because she likes to see him happy, but also because she's not looking forward to facing the crowds outside again. She knows they're going to bother him.

"Ready to go, Ms Potts?" Happy joins them from out of the bathroom, or maybe it was the kitchen. Judging by the bag of groceries he sets down next to the other bags, she's guessing it's probably the latter.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to let me go down there alone... I can go out the front while you and Happy distract the other reporters with the limo."

Tony's raises eyebrow is all the answer that she suspects she's going to get.

"Fine. Then I'm ready." She still hasn't found her shoes; she suspects they're thrown in a bag somewhere. Besides, it really wasn't a long walk -

"I should have known better," she mutters as Tony stops her with a hand on the arm and then scoops her up. "You're going to hurt yourself, Tony."

He snorts. "If I can walk around regularly in a 120 pound suit of armor Pepper, carrying you _down_ six flights of stairs is not going to break my damn back."

Happy opens the door to her apartment with what sounds suspiciously like a snort, and she glares at the back of his head as he leads the way to the stairwell.

"I can walk, Tony." Pepper tries to sound fierce, but her voice comes out groggy as Tony carries her into the house from the garage. Her head is resting on his shoulder and she's got her left arm hooked around his neck. She's fighting the urge to become dead weight. "Really. It'll help me wake up."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm fine?" Tony asks with more than a little exasperation. "You're going to give me some sort of complex if you keep this up." He takes a left at the hallway and stops several doors down. "If you'd get the door...?"

She's reaching for the door when she realizes where they are.

"Anthony _Stark_! I am not staying in this room!"

He sighs. "Pepper, it's the closest to the kitchen and the bathroom. Not to mention it's got a private Jacuzzi we both know will help your shoulder when you _inevitably_ overdo it."

She shakes her head and squirms. "No dice, Stark. Bad Karma central. For the last time, put me _down_."

He does, though he does it so that she's trapped between him and the door. She glares up at him, wishing she had a pair of heels on so that they were at least eye to eye. Actually glaring up at him is a new experience and she doesn't really like it.

"I am _not_ staying in the room where you take all your one night stands."

He grunts. "Do you know how ridiculous you sound? It's a _room_, Pepper. And for the record, I haven't used it in _months_."

"Yeah. And before that you used it several times a month. No."

He groans, seems to consider pushing the issue, then steps back. "Fine...but don't bitch about the way the sun heats up the rest of the rooms on this level in the afternoon. Honestly, Potts I'm clean and so were my God-damn partners. What...? Do I need to spray the place down with disinfectants or _what_?""

"Yes. I do not need to be worrying about what body part touched what surface, Tony. And the bed... Ew," she says with a completely disgusted face. "I mean..." It was more than just her not wanting to sleep on a mattress that's seen extensive use. She can't even believe that he'd even think to put her in the same room he took his playthings to. She thought for some reason that she meant more to him than that.

Tony looked at her, incredulously, shaking his head. "And they accuse me of being obsessed with sex. For the record, Potts, I was offering it to you because it's the best in the house. With the exception of my bedroom. Which, if you'll pardon me, I knew there was no way in hell you'd even consider."

He sighs, steps back and runs a frustrated hand through his hair. "Forgive my trying to be a thoughtful host. Pick your poison, just keep it on the first level because no matter how much I bitch about it we both know you'll constantly be trying to go up and down the stairs."

"Stop trying to be logical," she snaps. "Consider this from _my_ point of view: you're treating like someone you actually care about, and then you want to put me in the room where you store the women you _don't_ care about until I come in to shoo them away." She groans a little as she listens to herself. The Percocet is still getting to her, she knows, but at least she hadn't mentioned their kiss the fact that he was treating her the way a man usually treated someone they cared _deeply_ about. She's not ready to go there yet, not with the drugs in her system.

The man in front of her only blinks, and from the complete look of shock in his eyes, she realizes she's literally left him in a place where he can think of nothing to say.

He opens his mouth, closes it again. Then shakes his head and deliberately steps away.

"Okay...declaring truce. Because you're obviously drugged. Not to mention there's so much in that sentence that's fucked up I don't even know where to start. It's nearly eight pm and you've been on your feet way too long already. Find a room and change that. I don't care which one, I'm just going to get out of your way."

"Tony..." She tries to call him back, but he's already headed toward the living room. She can see him stepping out of his shoes as he retreats to his sanctuary.

'Great, Potts,' a voice inserts sardonically. 'You've been his roommate a total of fifteen minutes and you've already managed to either piss him off so bad that he doesn't have words to express it or hurt his feelings so bad he didn't even stay to help you move your luggage.'

She doesn't even know which part of what she said upset him.

Very quietly, Pepper chooses the room next door and steps inside. The sun is setting, bathing the room in a warm glow but she hardly notices. She strips off her makeshift sling and then struggles out of his shirt. The air is cool, but the cotton had been beginning to feel like sandpaper against her bruises. When she checks them in the bathroom mirror she winces, then hisses as she probes them.

"Jarvis, warn me if it appears Mr. Stark is going to come knock on my door or something," she mumbles as she climbs into bed. She doubts the sheets have been changed since the first of the month, but like most things in Tony's home, they extravagant and in this case, silk. She falls asleep quickly.

When she wakes up, it's to a clear head and more than a little curiosity. She wants to know what's going on. There's something about the day she got hurt that's changed something. He's already implied he's looked at everything he can find, so she's going to take advantage of that.

"Jarvis, pull all video files concerning Mr. Stark that have made the television and internet rounds in the past four days." Pepper pulls the shirt back on but leaves the sling on the floor. For now she'll just keep her arm close.

"Unable to Ma'am." Those files have already been deleted at Mr Stark's request."

"Well, then connect with the internet and download anything meeting my specifications," Pepper amends. Hearing that Tony has already seen the files and _deleted_ them leaves her more curious than ever. What is it that he doesn't want her to see?

"The internet connection is currently under repair. Mr. Stark has been working on the building's main server for the last three hours in the basement."

Jarvis almost sounds...amused. And Pepper doesn't know exactly what to make of it.

"Jarvis, recover the files that you can." This is getting ridiculous. "And if you can't find anything, I'm taking my laptop and calling a taxi to take me to the closest internet cafe. Understood?"

The AI beeps and then a strange things happens; the Blackberry on her bedside table starts to ring.

She reaches over to pick it up only to find a single text message waiting.

It was a password for a file folder on the main computer and a smiley face with the letter 'J' right below it.

"Jarvis, are you scared of Tony?" Pepper asks as she carefully opens her door and peeks out to listen. Everything is silent. She eases into the hallway. Her laptop is in her office.

-Frightened of, no. Concerned for, yes. I believe he has found the last few days to be a bit overwhelming, and it may have led to some actions on his part that were a bit overstated.-

That's the message that pops up in her Yahoo Messenger window when she finally fires up the laptop.

-Does that include a sudden penchant for abusing photographers?- she types back as she opens up the Systems directory and starts searching for the folder Jarvis directed her to.

-Negative. That I believe was a gut level instinct. Though I believe the intensity of his reaction did play a large part in unsettling him.-

Jarvis ends that statement with three perfect ellipses.

-Are you going to tell me what you surmise the other part is, or do I have to guess?- She finds the folder and double clicks on it. Immediately a dialogue box pops up requesting a password, and she checks her Blackberry before typing it in.

The computer accepts it and the folder opens, revealing a screen full of icons and a scroll bar that's so thin that she looks at the bottom of the window. "Six hundred files?" she murmurs in shock. "Six _hundred_?"

Jarvis finally types back, -Some things must be figured out on one's own if they're to be properly processed. As it is I have already betrayed him, and he rarely and uneasily gives anyone his complete trust.-

-Wait...these files were deleted with the _intent_ that I would never find them?-

-Negative. Mr. Stark knew you would eventually look. I have merely compiled them all in one place for ease of viewing...along with a few other files in his possession. He claimed that you had endured enough embarrassment already without, how was it he put it..."having all this crap shoved in her face..."-

Pepper blinks and wets her bottom lip, then tells the computer to organize the files according to date of creation. The first file is from...three years ago.

'What is going on?' she thinks, as she clicks on the icon. An image opens, a photograph of Tony making a presentation at a stock holder's meeting. He's behind a podium, and she's behind him and to the left. Her eyes are locked on the back of his head and she's smiling like he's said something possibly a little inappropriate but charming nonetheless.

She looks back to the folder. There's at least fifty files from the past three years. She clicks on a few randomly, but they're more of the same. Tony Stark being his public self, and her somewhere in the background. In one of them she's straightening his tie before he steps out from behind a curtain. In another he's looking over his shoulder at her and she's caught in the act of nodding.

They make no sense, though they do clear up some of what he'd been talking about in the car. If she discounted the faces, assumed that she had nothing to do with the people involved, she would guess that the two people pictured knew each other well.

She ignores the rest of the files as she scans for one from the day this mess began. There's seven or eight .wmv files from that day, and she clicks on one. Her media player opens immediately and starts playing. The film is shaky, but pretty clear. She sees Tony and herself come into the frame, sees Tony trying to shake off the questions with grace. She can see herself typing away furiously at her Blackberry, not really paying attention. Then it happens: the idiot photographer comes flying over the barricade and takes her down. What happens next is mostly out of frame. She closes the file and opens another.

This one is from a different position in the crowd. This time when Tony disappears from view he reappears facing the camera.

Pepper pauses the file, backs it up a little so she can see his face better. Tony looks furious. She doesn't recognize the man caught on her screen. He's completely out of control as he goes after the man who hurt her, and it's scary. But not as scary as the look that takes over his face when he pauses. She can't hear herself, but she knows this must be when she caught his attention. His face doesn't relax, but for a moment she sees... She doesn't know what she sees. The emotions on his face are so strong she doesn't know what name to give them. But she knows what she feels when she sees them.

She feels safe. She feels this is a man who will do anything to protect those he cares for. She feels relief that he's capable of answering to something other than rage.

She hits play again. Tony turns, disappears from view, reappears. He only glances at the crowd for a moment, but it's enough.

Pepper closes the file. She doesn't need to see anything else.

In that moment, when Tony Stark was gathering her close, he loved her.

She's not so stupid as to assume he didn't also love her while he was out of control in his rage, when he stopped throttling the man when she called to him.

He probably had been that day she'd emerged from her Percocet induced coma, when she'd kissed him while under the influence of her meds.

Probably today as he guided her through it, as he saw to all her needs, little and big.

As he punched a man who implied they were "fucking."

As she implied he was putting her in a room where he only put women he didn't care about.

"Oh _god_..." Pepper closes the laptop.

"Ms Potts," Jarvis whispers into the room.

She startles. Casts her eyes up toward the ceiling,

"Is he coming upstairs?"

She glances almost nervously to the door.

"Turn back on your laptop please, Pepper. There are a few more things I wish to show you. Anthony is asleep, finally. I imagine he'll stay that way for several hours.

Pepper reluctantly raises the lid to her laptop. After several seconds the system reboots and she waits for Jarvis to do whatever it is that he wanted to.

The Yahoo Messenger window opened back up. -I am sorry if that was a bit...abrupt. But you needed to know. However in fairness there is a bit more I have to show you. -

Then the AI accesses a different file a directory.

"Tell me, Ms Potts, what it is that you see."

-**I would split it here, I think**-

"Tell me, Ms Potts, what it is that you see."

A slide show starts up, taking up the entire screen of her monitor. This one far less formal than the still shots in the folder she's been in earlier. There are still shots from all over the mansion. Some of them alone, and some of them together.

There's a picture of Tony holding a gift she'd left for him one year on his birthday... a miniaturized book of sudoku she'd rigged to look like a small pocket notebook for him to take into meetings.

There's a picture of her asleep on the couch with him kneeling in front of her with a blanket she remembers waking up with the next morning shaking free in his hands.

There's a still shot of them down in the basement, where he's wiping grease across her nose.

She remembers that day because she'd come down with the intent of chewing him out for missing yet another meeting, only to find him so sleep deprived he could barely stand up.

There are more. So many more that eventually Pepper can't take it anymore.

"Jarvis, I assume you've already analyzed the body language and context of these pictures and come to a conclusion." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Are you trying to... I mean... Do I love Tony?"

"I don't see the need to answer a question to which you already know the answer."

"Right. Okay." Pepper bit her lip. "Is Tony still asleep...?"

"He is. I suspect he will remain that way for several more hours." The AI pauses. "One more file, Pepper. It will be difficult to watch I suspect...but it will also explain things..."

Ten seconds later she's watching Obadiah Stane shocking Tony Stark on his living room couch.

"Oh my god!" The shock jerks her body, making her shoulder scream as she covers her mouth with both hands.

The helplessness in Tony's eyes as Obadiah walks around the couch causes her even more pain than that in her shoulder. She'd never known how Stane had gotten a reactor for his suit. For some reason she'd thought he'd built it himself, along with his weapon.

She has to look away as he pulls the reactor out of Tony's chest, but that doesn't stop her from hearing Tony's small grunt of pain. The audio from Jarvis's systems is crystal clear. She hears every word of betrayal, is sickened by the way Stane twists compliments and facts and pours them in Tony's ear like poison. And then her blood chills as she hears him tell Tony that he's going to kill her because she helped him.

Then the fury hits her - cold and pure and stronger than anything she's ever experienced before.

"That miserable _bastard_!" She's up and out of her chair. The movement is too fast for her aching body and her injured shoulder screams. It doesn't stop her though, from hurling the computer across the room to watch it smash against the door.

Inside her shoulder there's a sickening jolt, and she experiences a wave of pain so intense it makes her want to vomit.

Her knees give out then, under the stress of the emotions, and it's only by luck she's able to control her fall to the floor.

She lays there for a long time. For awhile she doesn't think, she just breathes through the pain - all the pain.

She tries to remember how long Tony had been doing thoughtful little things for her, like covering her with blankets when she worked himself to exhaustion in his home, or bringing her tea when her throat was rough with a cold that hadn't been bad enough to keep her at home.

She can't remember. Maybe he'd always done it, maybe it'd started early and seemed so natural that she'd assumed it was part of who he was as a man. But she can't remember many times when he'd gone out of his way for anyone but her. That suggests that she's an exception to a rule, not subject to one.

The floor is hard. She pushes herself off it with her good hand, but only gets to a sitting position. She has to pull herself off the floor using her desk. For a moment she sways above it as the blood rushes from her head, but then her vision clears and she reaches for her laptop to close it.

Her laptop's not on her desk.

She looks at the wall opposite her. Her laptop is pretty much destroyed, its rubble lying in front of her closed door. She must have thrown it as hard as she was capable of. That leads her thoughts back to Stane and she doesn't regret it for a moment. What she regrets is that she couldn't have thrown it a good deal harder. Or, when it could have done some good, brought it crashing down on the back of his head.

For the first time since the accident three days ago, she doesn't just understand Anthony Stark. She admires his _control_.

"Ms Potts?" Jarvis breaches the silence quietly. The sounds causes her to break into hysterical giggles. "Ah, Jarvis...I don't think I can take another 'one more thing' right now...though I appreciate the theory behind what you did.

The computer clicks to life then, an unfamiliar face on the room's only TV screen. Jarvis as a whole didn't use his imagers much. They took up too much of his memory.

"Are you all right, Virginia?" the AI asks as its image physically crouches down next to her on the screen.

"I am... I am..." How was she supposed to explain to a computer program that she was both devastated and at peace at the same time? How did she explain biological and emotional imperatives that were demanding opposing things from her?

"I am ready for another Percocet, I think." That was about as close to an explanation as she could come. "Although if we have any muscle relaxants in the house, that might be a wiser option. Losing control right now might be a bad thing." Her shoulder still throbs as if she'd just dislocated it.

"I have woken Mr. Stark. He's on his way upstairs. Judging by the way your heart-rate is elevated, you may need to be seen by a doctor. I am...sorry...that you were as upset as you were. If I had realized what your likely physical reaction would be I would have tried to share the information by a less traumatic means."

She laughs then. "Jarvis...there was _no_ way to make that less traumatic."

About this point Tony comes through the door. His eyes are mussed with sleep and his face is panicked.

"Jarvis said you _fell_?" He's crouching on the floor beside her. His right hand comes out to cup her face...

"My God...Pepper, you're _freezing_."

And it's true. His hand feels like fire meeting ice against her skin.

She sighs and closes her eyes, nuzzling her face into his palm. "I'm sorry," she tells him, ignoring his concerns for her. They're not much next to what she'd inadvertently implied earlier. "I didn't mean to make it sound like you don't care about me, earlier. I know you do. I knew then. And that's why I was so confused about why you would try to put me in that room. I didn't mean to make it sound the way I did -"

"Pepper, I don't give a damn about earlier." He bodily lifts her, carrying her out of her office. "Your skin is like ice. I think you're going into _shock_..."

Then he's carrying her into his bedroom and placing her on his bed as he pulls up the blankets.

She grits her teeth as he pulls the blankets tight around her shoulders. "_I_ give a damn, Tony, because I hurt you. And I shouldn't have."

"Let it go, Pepper." He says as he sinks onto the mattress beside her. She can see some of the haze of sleep is finally lifting from his eyes. "It's already forgiven. Just lie there and try and warm up while I get your medication."

She searches his eyes, trying to tell if he's saying what he thinks will calm her down or if he's telling her the truth. Finally she nods, convinced that he really has let the comment go.

His eyes search hers with an equal kind of intensity for a moment. And then he nods. "I'll be right back. Now stay here and _get warm_."

"Yes, sir." She tries to relax her body, though it's hard with the way everything along her right side throbs as if she's being pummeled.

What seems like an eternity later Tony comes back through the doorway. He shakes two pills into the palm of his hand and uses the other arm to help lift her up so she can drink the water he offers.

The act of sitting is agony, but the pills go down quickly, and she sags backwards in relief when the task is finally done.

Tony doesn't lay her back down though, instead he simply climbs into the bed right behind her, straddling her hips from behind and easing her back till she's propped against her chest.

"Breathe...slow and deep and the pain will hurt less. Just breathe."

"Okay." She does, because in the quiet she can hear him breathing too, can breathe deep his scent until it's imprinted on her mind. His arms are lose around her waist, but they're no less strong for that. Instinctively she wiggles, trying to get closer to him.

His breathing is rhythmic, and the air expelling out of his mouth is warm against the back of her neck.

It takes perhaps ten minutes, but the pain begins to lessen. The drugs kick in with a warmth that spreads up from her belly to cover her whole body.

"Vicodin?" She asks him softly. Praying that it's anything else.

He shakes his head. "Your new prescription...Toradol and Flexeril. Both which make you a little sleepy, but shouldn't effect your thinking."

She wonders what she can get away with saying or doing before he decides that her thinking is effected.

Thinking that leads to action, and she takes his hand in her good one raising it until she's cradling it against her heart. Well, also between her breasts, but right now she's a little preoccupied with hearts.

"I love you," she whispers into the air, and feels him jolt, just minutely, in his space behind her.

"I watched those videos you tried to hide from me," she admits when he says nothing. "Don't get mad at Jarvis. He tried hard. But there wasn't much he could do when I threatened to call a taxi to take me to an internet cafe so I could scour YouTube in peace."

Still he doesn't say anything, and Pepper has a sudden attack of nerves. She tries to turn around to face him, but his arms turn to iron bands around her, keeping her in place.

"_Okay_," she mutters in irritation, "if this is the part where you tell me what a pleasure it's been working with me, I am going to insist you say it to my face."

"You are such an _idiot_," he exhales into her neck, "if you think for a minute that that's where we are now."

Then the man behind her is shaking, just a little and the fabric on the back of her shirt is actually getting wet. Pepper doesn't say anything. For all that she started this, she doesn't really know what she's doing. So she just bows her head and presses her lips to the hand she's still holding over her heart.

He moans then, and presses his face hard into her good shoulder. "You have the worst timing in _history_!" he whimpers, as his cock hardens to press against her back and his hands clench, involuntarily hard, down on both of her hips.

"Oh, as if it's my fault you're constantly horny." She tries to press back against him now that she knows she's not being rejected and he's not freaking out.

His hands locks down on her tighter. "_Do not move an inch_. You are _drugged _and I am a _bastard_ beyond all scope of belief." He raises his head and his next words are to himself. "You are hurt and we are not doing this here."

"Oh no, Tony Stark. You don't get to use that as an excuse. _You're_ the one who said I should only get sleepy, not hazy." She sighs when his grip doesn't loosen. "Tony..."

He shakes his head a little. "I have to be sure. Because I cannot do this and watch you walk out on me tomorrow if it turns out I'm wrong." He shudders behind her, inhales sharply. "I won't...do you understand? If we do this, it is _over_. You'll be mine and you'll have to stay because letting you go after..._I don't have it in me_."

"Tony..." This time her voice isn't complaining, it's both reassuring and empathetic. "Jarvis showed me the video from the night Stane came here."

Behind her he inhales in shock and the erection that's been pressing into her lower back simply deflates and dies.

"I was so worried that night, Tony. When you wouldn't answer the phone I was nearly overcome with panic. And _now_, to know I had good reason to be, and that the _bastard_ actually had rationalized your _murder_..." Her hands ball into fists and she has to fight the natural tendency to tense up while angry. "What I'm trying to say is that I understand, Tony. I understand that you thought you were going to be too late. That maybe you weren't going to make it at all." Tony only whimpers and wraps his arms back around her waist, pulling her back against him as if he believed it were possible for the two of them to fit in only his space.

"Tony, I'm not going anywhere. Not voluntarily." When he doesn't respond in any way, Pepper sighs and reaches behind her, cupping the back of his neck and holding him where he's pressed against her back.

"Weren't you just advising me to breathe a minute ago?" she asks with resigned amusement. It certainly doesn't feel as if he's breathing back there.

He shivers when her hand cups his skin, and in the space of that moment, goes from soft to hard again. She can feel the length of him swell against the curve of her back.

"Are you _sure_?" He squeezes the words out through clenched teeth. "_Really_ sure. Because I'm not sure I'll be able to stop."

"Tony, what I'm certain of is that I love you, and you love me. You've been carrying me around all day, so I trust you. If _you_ believe you won't hurt me, _I_ believe you won't hurt me." She tightens her fingers and her nails gently scrape against his scalp. "_I __**love**__ you_."

He groans then, like he hurts, and lifts his hands, with hers atop them, to his mouth for a kiss.

Then he's shifting just slightly, as his hands drop out from under hers. "Slow and easy." He mutters under her breath. His fingers are ghosting along the skin of her belly. "Slow and _easy_." He says again, and she realizes he's talking to himself.

His hands reach up, trembling visibly, to the first button of her shirt, and his fingers brush lightly above on bruised but now tingling flesh. His lips find the side of her neck, and she shivers, just a little, as his lips and then his tongue traces a smooth line of skin.

Her breathing is no longer slow and deep. It's shallow and fast and she doesn't feel much else than his lips and his fingers because whatever he gave her has kicked in.

But she's definitely not hazy or uncertain of what's going on. She's never been more aware of a setting in her life.

His fingers find the last button on her shirt, and he gently parts the two halves. Pepper waits, her eyes glued to his hands as he draws light circles on the skin just under her ribcage. She watches as they slowly skim upwards until they run into the lower curves of her breasts. One hand rests there, flat and hot and just about big enough to cover all of her. The other hand trails up between her breasts, over the closure to her bra...and then back down.

He lingers there, running the tip of one finger back and forth over the clasp. Her hands brace themselves on his thighs, curling the material of his jeans into her fists. She doesn't say anything, just watches as he apparently takes time to make up his mind.

"Last chance, Potts." His voice is strangled. His dick twitches against her back like a promise. Her answer is to reach up with her one good hand and free the clasp of her bra.

The fabric parts effortlessly, as he moans in anticipation, then his hand is rising to cup her...exalting in flesh against flesh. His palms are warm...no, they are _hot_, and just coarse enough to provide interesting contrast against her skin

She gasps softly as he closes around her, and shudders a little. The motion doesn't even register in her shoulder as his thumb and forefinger find her nipple and gently start to tease it.

They stroke the pebbled flesh, flicking against it lightly until it hardens more than she would have thought possible. It's like he's tugging and invisible string that goes from her breast to her groin. "Tony..." She groans as her head falls back against his shoulder. "Move it, Stark. Where we are right now, I can't even touch you!"

"No, but you can watch. You were watching pretty intently just a moment ago." His voice is dark and rough and makes goosebumps breakout across her entire body. "Tell me what you see," he rumbles as he nibbles on the tendons in her neck. "Tell me what you see, Pepper."

She tries to obey. Her legs move restlessly, squeeze together as if that will supply some sort of relief. It only makes things worse. "I love your hands," she finally murmurs, though she hasn't quite been able to lift her head off his shoulder yet. "I've always loved your hands. They're so big that I'm always amazed at the delicacy they're capable of."

She shudders as his other hand leaves her torso so that he's holding both breasts in his hands, gently squeezing, testing them. "Tony..."

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever fucking seen." His voice is hoarse, almost strangled. "And I have _seen_...more than I'm probably comfortable with or you'll ever want to know about." His right hand goes back to plucking at her nipples, while the other one starts trailing down her belly, weaving slow but relentless paths toward her waistline. "It's not fair...how beautiful you are. How capable you are of making me want you just by breathing..."

His hand reaches her waistline, sinks beneath, and he groans at the feel of silk underneath his finger tips. "God, Pepper." He murmurs. "You're not even trying and if I'm not careful this will be over before it even _starts_."

She can't draw enough breath to reply, not that she needs the words. Her body gives answer enough as she raises her knees and plants her feet on the outside of his legs. She's open to him, as open as she's been all day, depending on him to take care of her.

This new position makes her sink lower on his chest, and she takes as much advantage of it as she trusts him to. She uses the grip she has on his hair to lower his head. Before he can say another word, she's got her tongue in his mouth and she's thrusting against his tongue like there's no time to lose.

Screw slow and easy. She wants _Tony_. And that's all she wants. Any way she can get him.

He rumbles in reaction. Deep in his chest. Battles with her tongue for control, as some of the restraint he held himself under finally crumbles. His hands are hot against her through the silk of her panties, and her hips jerk roughly as he finds her clit. "Not like this..." He mumbles, in a moment of parted lips. He pulls away just long enough for them to both draw a deep breathe. "Not like a couple of horny teenagers...we're at least getting our clothes off first."

She half laughs and half growls into his face and she nips his lips. "You're one to talk Stark, you're the one who's got me this way, and the only one still wearing a shirt!"

He eases out from behind her, stripping his shirt off as he goes.

Pepper's immediately on her knees, her hands holding onto his hips as her lips start devouring the skin of his neck. He's hers now, and she has no problem staking her claim over every inch of skin until she's all he can think about or even remember. Even when she's not all over him.

By the time he's shifted on the bed to lie down beside her, she's rolled back onto her butt, with some careful support of her good hand.

"What's gonna be easiest for your shoulder?" he whispers as he reaches forward to help her remove her pants.

"What shoulder?" she whispers back against his jaw.

"The one that's going to hurt like _hell_ in another two hours if you put too much weight on it," is his reply. His voice is scolding her but his fingers are saying something different altogether as they reach the hemline of her panties and tug them down as well. "Now which is easier...you on your back with a pillow or straddling me with my back against the headboard and my hands to lend support?"

"Yes." She pushes against his shoulders, urging him towards the headboard. Anything that leaves her on top is a plan she can get behind. She's got a few weeks of demanding the right before he can argue without looking like a bastard, and she plans to take advantage of them. "But first get with the program, Stark, and lose the freaking pants!"

Because he's not moving fast enough, she reaches down and slips her hand inside the loose waistband to make her case. He gasps at the action and she realizes in that same moment that he's not even wearing underwear. "Just how long have you been going commando?" She asks, arching a brow as she takes his cock in her hand.

"Wouldn't you just like to know." He grimaces, as he tries to squirm his legs the rest of the way free as he backs toward the headboard. "EASY, there Potts!" He gasps as she squeezes in retribution. "For like the six-thousandth time in the last five minutes, slow and steady is how we win the race."

She follows after him, straddling his lap when his back runs into he headboard. They both shudder and moan when she presses against him and for a moment - a brief moment - Pepper is willing to take a second to savor the sensation of bare skin sliding against bare skin.

But then she sinks down. "Slow and steady is boring. What's the matter, Anthony, getting to old to keep up?"

She actually has the audacity to laugh at the surprise on his face, and then she decides to kiss him some more while she struggles against the hands that have clamped down on her hips in an effort to slow her down.

"Fuck it." He murmurs after a moment of struggle, and then one hand smacks down hard on her ass just before he tips her backward onto the mattress, effectively reversing their positions.

"You," he grins as she squirms, "have the manners and patience of a preschooler who's had too much chocolate and no nap." He punctuates every other syllable with a sharp and pleasurable thrust-twitch of his hips against hers.

"Oh?" she asks breathlessly as she wraps her legs around his hips. The dramatic change in position has left her a little lightheaded, but she's not complaining. Far from it, she arches into his next thrust as much as he'll let her. "Ohhh..."

His eyes are starting to roll back in his head. "Remind me to spank you and put you in time out just as soon as this is over."

"Only if you come with me." He's so deep inside her that her pleasure has nowhere to go, or so it feels. Her hands scrape over his back, run back up over his chest and hook over his shoulders.

He moans again and grasps her feet with his hands. "Let me put this another way, Potts: Knock it off or I will come with or without you."

"Not very nice." She bares her teeth at him. She can feel her inner walls starting to tighten around him.

"No...not nice will be me pinning you after and not letting you come until you beg and cry for at least five minutes first." He says it like a promise and a warning.

"You call that punishment?" she gasps. Her neck arches and her head presses back into the mattress as Tony does _something_ that has him pressing into her just right.

Then he goes off like a rocket, and disappointingly enough considering his promising threats, she goes right along with him.

Pepper knows she's naked. She knows she's between silk sheets. She knows Tony is asleep next to her, his bare arm wrapped around her waist. She knows she told him she loves him, knows they had some pretty incredible sex.

Of course, all that knowing does absolutely nothing to dim the fire in her shoulder and down the right side of her chest.

She can't contain the gasp of pain that rips out of her lips as she rolls onto her back, trying to more evenly disperse the weight of her body.

The man next to her bolts upright at the movement. Goes from asleep to completely wide awake within the space of a few seconds. "Oh shit..." he gasps, taking in the pain on her face. "Oh_ shit_...I am an unforgivable asshole. Do you need a doctor or do you want to start with another dose of medicine?"

He's practically babbling, already climbing out of bed, she can see her fingernail marks running in streaks down his back.

She concentrates on her breathing and forces the words out, "Medicine first. Doctor later." And despite the fact that she's in agony, she's also completely and utterly sure that right now she is smirking. This fact is only confirmed when Tony turns back towards her and stops short, a very confused look on his face.

The smirk grows. "How does your back feel this morning, Anthony?" she purrs, even though it almost hurts to speak. All she can think is, 'Oh yeah, that was _so_ totally worth it. He's mine.'

And then she has the pleasure of watching Anthony Stark, who is not only struck completely speechless, but who also looks over his shoulder at his back and turns a flaming shade of red. She starts to laugh, beyond pleased with herself, but it hurts too much and she stops short with a little grimace. "Ow." She sounds surprised.

His face goes from confused back to pissed in that moment. "I _told_ you this was a bad idea. You were not ready for that kind of calisthenics." Swearing, he pulls his pants on and heads toward the wide door.

"Where are you going?" she bellows after his retreating back. Not because she's afraid he'll leave, but because she wants to know when he will come back.

"To get more water, idiot. You just had to get all acrobatic on me and double your pain." He sounds pissed off and turned on and ready to strangle her all in that one sentence.

"Nothing risked, nothing gained," she calls after him before deciding it's time to shut her mouth and concentrate on that deep breathing Tony had recommended the night before.

She can't manage deep, but she can mange slow and steady. The irony does not escape her.

She's almost gotten the hang of waiting out the darts of pain that come with each inhalation when she hears Tony come back. He comes back through his bedroom door with a glass of juice in his hand and a gigantic frown on his face. "You!" He points. "You are in serious deep shit. You are off the work list for at least a week. And if I find out you actually tore anything in that shoulder, I swear..."

He can't seem to thing of a punishment that is sufficient, so he leaves the sentence hanging.

"What? You swear you're going to make me beg for five minutes before I get to come again? Work on better threats, Tony."

She smiles as he grinds his eyes shut. It looks like he's counting to ten.

When he opens his eyes again, his grin is biting. "You know if you're already hurt I suppose there's not good reason that I can't put some red on your ass for good measure, because you certainly deserve it. The pain killers I'm about to force down your throat will take care of that pain just as effectively as it will treat all the rest."

He takes a step toward the bed and for about a tenth of a second she actually believes he's going to do it. "Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I'm very sorry, sir. The next time we have sex I won't be nearly as enthusiastic if it pleases, you sir." Then she drops the smartass routine and just smiles at him. "Good morning to you too, Tony."

He groans, the roll his eyes and bends down to deliver a quick but punishing kiss. "Take your drugs, Pepper, while I decide how to kill you."

"Help me sit up," she asks, stretching out her left hand. He does so and she leans against him as she quickly swallows the pills. Then she lets him take her weight as he props all the pillows behind her and lowers her against them. "Thank you." She closes her eyes so he won't see the pain in them. "And just a reminder, Stark, I was going to wake up stiff and sore this morning no matter what. So I see no reason whatsoever to complain."

He snorts at her words. Pulls the blanket up to armpit level. She's not sure if she should be insulted or not that he doesn't even linger over the view. "You are so full of it, Pepper...I don't even know where to begin."

He looks kind of silly, with his pants on but not buttoned hut. His feet are bare and his chest is sweaty, but his face is mellowing. "So..." He runs a hand through his hair, then reaches over without thought to push her bangs off her forehead. "Other than the fact that you're a smart ass with absolutely no sense of self-preservation, how are you doing this morning?"

"Fantastic. Starving." Her eyes roam over his bare chest and down to he unbuttoned fly of his pants before rising to his again. "Oh yeah…and I could eat. Food would be good."

He raises an eyebrow. "I am going to assume for the sake of my sanity and your continued good health that was a request for a plate of scrambled eggs."

"Probably a good idea considering how I deal with meds on an empty stomach," she agrees. Then she smiles, a soft kind of smile that Tony wasn't used to seeing on women. "It's a good thing you'd already decided to keep me, because I am probably going to drive you up the walls."

He snickers, "What's new about _that_, Pepper? You've been doing so for _years_."

He smiles down at her then, with a smile so broad and natural in takes her breath from her chest and leaves her with a sudden inexplicable need to burst into tears.

She'd noticed last night that he'd never actually said "I love you," to her. She'd said it for both of them, and he'd agreed through his actions, but he hadn't said them. And now Pepper decided that as long as he gave her that smile every morning, he would never have to.

"I love you, too," she says with lips that just barely tremble.


	4. Chapter 4

Pepper is woken from her nap by a kiss

Pepper is woken from her nap by a kiss. It starts by her ear, and slowly trails down her jaw. She smiles a little, but doesn't otherwise react. She is groggy and mostly pain free, and the lips are so very warm and soft. But then the lips meet hers and she can't help but react, parting her lips in an invitation to deepen the contact. And for one brief, satisfying second she gets exactly what she wants.

And then Tony pulls away, eliciting a hiss of protest as his body shifts back.

"Tony," she complains, rolling onto her shoulder. She can feel his weight pressing into the bed and she gladly comes to a rest against him. The man behind her is warm, a little diffident but also soothing. He's got a hand on her exposed flank, and his right thumb is digging deep into the sore muscles that she's only starting to notice in her neck.

He speaks in an affectionate whisper. "Sorry to wake you...but it's nearly time for lunch and we're running out of time. The people from PR are due in a little over an hour, and I thought you'd like awhile to eat and get ready."

It's at that point she realizes he is wide awake and as disappointing as she finds it, completely dressed. "You're waking me up for a _meeting_?" she asks in disbelief as she reaches out to stroke the line of his jaw.

Tony Stark shivers in reaction then quirks his lips in what is open amusement. He nods his head at the same time his thumb keeps moving – eliciting tingles all the way down her spine. "I figured you needed all the extra recovery time you could get, so I let you sleep straight through from last night."

His hand on her flank reaches to cup her right butt cheek, and he squeezes with just enough pressure to make her tingle before he pulls back his hand. "Unfortunately PR is quite insistent on discussing our situation, and as nice as it might be we can't very well stay camped out here forever." He rolls away from her and off the bed with a regretful little sigh. "All that being said, it's time to get you cleaned up and changed before they get here."

He sits up and moves to get off of the bed, but she reaches for his arm.

"I need help in the shower, remember?" Frankly, Pepper is finding it hard to give a damn about anything other than getting Tony naked. "How many Percocet did you give me?" she asks suspiciously, feeling the strange almost exhilarating tension that is sweeping through her body. Good lord, even for her this is out of control. Tony probably thought all of this was out of character, but she knew herself. She liked sex. But she could usually focus on what was important in addition to sex.

Tony Stark though, seemed to be having a detrimental effect on her ability to focus on anything.

"You haven't had any Percocet. You never indicated you needed any. As I said, I let you sleep. Pepper, you've had nothing but another dose of Flexeril to around 3 am. As for a shower...why bother? Your hair is still plenty clean and you have time for a soak in the hot tub." He climbs from the bed then, and reaches out a hand to help her stand, doing his best to keep his eyes on her face as she lets the blankets stay behind on the bed. "Now as I said, we're unfortunately on a timetable, so I suggest you hit the little girls room while I get the water into the spa."

"That was three o'clock in the morning that I woke up?" she asks in shock. She'd thought it'd been much later than that for some reason... "Why did you bring me scrambled eggs at such a ungodly hour? You should have been asleep!"

Tony only shrugs. "You hadn't eaten since four, and I was making food for myself anyway...I figured you'd prefer not to wake up dizzy and nauseous. And I did sleep…well napped at least. Then I just woke and couldn't get back to sleep."

The man in front of her does look a little bit tired, albeit more relaxed than she's ever seen him. It's like he's finally at peace – able to remain content within the confines of his own stretching skin. 'Note to self...sex makes Anthony Stark more mellow.' She's fairly certain that this is going to be useful information at some point.

Like perhaps in the middle of his next big inventive phase, when she's tried and failed at getting him to eat or rest and he's so intent on his work that she just wants to strange him.

She leans into him as her legs buckle a little, and she has to admit that it's a happy coincidence. "I can think of better ways to spend an hour than eating lunch, Anthony."

He chuckles at the nickname as his hands go to her hips. "Oh no. No way in hell...we won't have time for that even if you settled on just a shower. A soak in the hot tub is better. For your shoulder. And by the way, the pet name? Not really working for me." He crinkles his nose for a moment. "The only other woman who ever called me that was my _mother_, and she was usually pissed as hell at me when she actually did so."

"I could be pissed as hell at you," she offers, nibbling at his neck. "Besides, context is everything. I'd be happy to demonstrate."

He trembles a little against her, and she can feel him stiffen though his pants. For just a moment his hands tighten around her hips, and his waist rocks up against hers. Before she can find a rhythm though, he pulls back with a clearly regretful sigh. "Hot tub, Potts. You didn't do your RoM exercises last night, and that is not responsible of either of us. The heat of the spa will at least loosen you up a little, and we can get you fed before the meeting…"

Then he takes a full step away from her, reaches for the sheet on the bed and wraps it around her, tucking it into place sarong style in the gap between her breasts.

Her eyes narrow. "Fine. After the meeting then. An hour strikes me as being kinda rushed anyway." She resists the urge to whine as she says it.

He gets a strange look on his face then, something that might be read as...regret? "Do you want salad or soup for lunch, Pepper? Because I think I still have some of that lobster bisque that we got and ate at that restaurant last Friday night."

"Are you avoiding me?" she demands. "Because waking me up with a kiss and then ignoring the fact that we had sex and will probably have it again the near future is sending some pretty mixed messages."

He sighs a little in exasperation, "I'm not avoiding anything, just trying to show a little bit of maturity here." And then he steps forward to suddenly cover her lips with his.

The kiss is hot and a little frantic, like he's trying to put a night's worth of passion in one stroke of his tongue across her lips. His breath is sweet and reminds her just faintly of cinnamon, but he's to quick for her to register anything more specific, before he's sucking on her bottom lip. Her mouth opens without his having to demand it, and then his tongue is inside insistently probing the recesses of her mouth and the sharp and dull edges of her teeth.

Then he's pulling back, just as quickly, and the regret on his face this time isn't even minutely hidden. "That's why I didn't accept your offer, Pepper. Because right now it doesn't take anything to kindle the flame. Like it or not though, my libido gets to take a back seat. You need to go and soak in that hot tub, because I don't particularly get off on knowing that my actions are going to cause you more pain. So stop pushing my buttons, Virginia, and go get cleaned up. Later we can revisit the issue of the proper time and place."

He's out the door then before she can blink, with a half amused and half put upon expression of longing on his face.

"Why do I have a feeling that my definition of 'proper' is different than his?" she asks herself as she totters into the bathroom and starts the water up. She slowly drags a brush through her hair and decides that Tony's probably right about not needing to wash it immediately. Then she slips into the tub and starts the jets, and decides she's going to sit there until someone tells her otherwise. Fifty minutes later, she has to admit Tony was right about one thing: the jets and the heat have managed to untangle knots she hadn't even realized she _had._

About at that point Tony walks through the door; he's got a tray with a sandwich on it and a tall glass of red liquid that might be juice or might be wine. He smiles at the sight of her with her hair piled atop her head as he carries the tray over to the bedside table and carefully sets it down.

"Felling better?" He asks her affectionately, reaching down to place a kiss in the center of her forehead. "You've got about another thirty five minutes, by the way, before the guys from PR get here. Do you need help getting out and changed or can you handle getting dressed on your own?"

"I'll probably need help." She watches him with caution. This is where they were yesterday; her being injured and him being attentive. Yes, he was being affectionate, but he was taking pains not to let his eyes slip to what lay under the water. And for some reason she admits that the fact hurts her a little.

"I don't understand," she admits a little cautiously.

"Understand what?" he asks just a little too casually. There's a slightest bit of tremor to his hand though, a nervous twitch in his right pointer finger.

"You. Me. Us." She winces. "Though that sounds horribly cliché."

"I think we covered everything last night pretty clearly." His mouth twitches upwards in a genuine grin before he then schools it back into something more controlled, and she hates the way he schools his face. "I need you, you need me. It's all pretty straight forward and basic. Of course we may have shoved the whole thing down too long, and you have the overextended shoulder tendons to prove it. It's just..." He pauses as if he's not trying to choose his words carefully. "You're just pushing _so much_ that's it's kind of creeping me out. If this is it and you're not going anywhere, then why the frantic scramble, Pepper? Just slow the fuck down."

She blinks at him. Then blinks at him some more. She knows that what he said probably makes sense to him. To her though..."But Tony, I _want_ you." Who would have thought the world's most practiced playboy would have to be so _annoyingly_ cerebral?

He laughs. "Yeah, well it's mutual. Doesn't mean we have to rush it." Tony sighs, and then bends forward again to touch his lips to hers in the slowest and softest of possible kisses. When he pulls back she's trembling a little and his expression grows even more tender. "Does everything have to be a battle? I want a chance to do it _right_." Then he squeezes her upper arms and his voice grows very serious. "Whether or not you like it, you have limits you should be respecting physically that you're currently ignoring. It just…" He pauses before continuing. "It just scares me a little, doing this when you don't seem to recognize that you're still hurt. Because you might be able to live with being permanently injured if we let things get rough, but I'm not sure I'm quite as good with knowing I'm the one who caused it."

"Slow," she repeats, staring at his lips. She bites down on her own as she ponders the meaning of 'slow.' He's still within kissing range. What he's said does register in some part of her brain at least, but her libido, unlike his, is not so easily giving up. "Are we talking about slow, or _slow_?" she asks as she leans forward and presses her lips to his. She's very slow, languid even, as she runs her tongue against his bottom lip before pushing in further. She keeps her hands inside the tub, because she knows that if she gets his suit wet he'll leave to go change, and that's not what she wants at all.

He groans, pulls back just enough to say, "Slow means minimally after the meeting, and if you're reasonable after your shoulder is looked at by a doctor again and he okays that level of physical activity."

"I don't see the doctor again until tomorrow afternoon," she groans, this time in disappointment. She'd been right: her definition of proper was very different than his.

And as much as she understands his logic she still doesn't have to like it.

Still she knows she can only push so far, and she wonders if in this particular situation, this may actually be it.

Thankfully enough Tony also seems capable of bending. "I'm willing to negotiate." he admits from where he's standing above her, after a long moment of silence. His eyes have finally fallen to the waterline and his eyes are dilating as he takes in the sight. "But the...calisthenics have to calm down. There's something to be said for being cautious and savoring the moment." He's licking his lips. "I've waited awhile now. I like to think neither of us is afraid to draw it out."

The implication is clear; for him this is more than a weekend excursion. If he wants to stretch things out, well the question is, was there any harm from in playing along?

"Tony?" she whispers. "I think you'd better help me get dressed now. Or we won't be ready to meet with the PR team for hours."

He nods and she thinks she sees relief in his eyes. "I'll get a couple of towels, just sit tight for anther couple of minutes."

Pepper stays put, trying to get herself under her control by the time Tony comes back into the room. Tries to figure out what is going on in her mind. Decides it's probably a general kind of uneasiness. Logically she knows that Tony had made a commitment to her of sorts, even if it has been a little confusing and vague. She really isn't sure what the particulars of 'never being let go' are, even if she thinks it indicates permanence.

Maybe it was just the situation getting to her. He'd told her once that he knew in his heart that what he did as Iron Man was right. Well, her heart was telling her that they would have ended up at this point eventually, that their lives would have continued merging until they were left with no other choice but to become lovers. But their trip to that point – until now – had been slow. This whole thing with her shoulder, and the media, and the attention, had rushed things.

She knows that this was right – when they're together it _feels_ right. It's the rest of the time that the ground feels unstable under her, like stepping stones set in mud. The ground hadn't quite firmed up enough to support her comfortably, and though there was no going back, there was plenty of wobbling.

Pepper wonders if Tony feels it too, if that's one of the reasons he wants to take things slowly. As if he remembers their previous pace and wanted to somehow tie it in to their situation now. As if they now need to leave room for a transition that should have been effortless.

If that's what he's thinking, she can try to slow down. Slow _all_ of it down. And he's right about her being maybe a little too needy for the physical side of their relationship, now that she has it. Stressing her shoulder is a bad idea. She loves Tony Stark, but one day she'd like to be able to hold him with _both_ arms.

So for now, providing he's reasonable, she'll play by his rules. But if he thinks for a moment that she is going to wait to make love with him again until she is fully healed in six to eight weeks, then he has another thing coming. There's being slow, and there's being ridiculous. As if either one of them needs the stress of keeping their hands off each other for months on top of everything else.

About this time Tony returns with the towels. He sets them down and grins a little at whatever expression he's currently seeing on her face. "Now, now, Ms Potts." His voice is a honey thick rumble. "Come on and stand up, there's no need to have a hissy fit. As I said we'll renegotiate the subject. After the meeting."

'Okay, good to know that 6-8 weeks is out of the question,' she thinks as she shivers. Her nipples immediately harden his tone and her knees feel a little weak as she uses the handle bars to help her up. He's tried using that tone on her before without effect. But now she knows exactly what he has to back it up.

And it's currently unavailable, which is massively unfair.

The towel that he settles around her shoulders is butter soft and slightly warm. Tony rubs her wet skin gently as they stand there a moment. "Got you legs under you yet? Cause there are clothes laid out in the bedroom. I dug through and found stuff that looked like it would be professional enough for a meeting but was relatively simple to get on or off."

"Makes sense." Her eyes are roving over his chest, not sure if she was glad that he's in a suit or not. Because his clothes are tailored to perfection but they're also silk and pure temptation to hungry eyes and skin. "How's your back?" she asks in distraction, wondering if he can still feel her touch there and whether he likes it if he can.

"Stings a little." He acknowledges hoarsely. "Not that I mind. Kind of like it actually."

Which is more than she needs to know if she's going to succeed and honoring his wishes and keeping her hands off of him.

Tony seems to realize that, because he suddenly blushes. He clears his throat, coughs, and jerks his head in the direction of her bedroom as he turns and leaves the bedroom. "As I as saying your clothes are currently laid out on the bed."

"Right. Rather than on the floor." She clings to the towel as she precedes him out. Knowing he can still feel her touch is really more of a turn-on than she needs right now. Because it only makes her think of how he'd felt under her hands, the muscles moving under all that smooth skin...

She stifles a groan. 'Yeah...this is going to be a long meeting, all though there might be certain benefits to going 'slow'...'

The least of them being that fact that just about everything they do between now and the end of the day is likely to tease the holy hell out of both of them.

"Ms Potts." Jarvis voice suddenly cuts through the silence. "Are there any files you wish for me to retrieve for you before your guest arrive in twenty more minutes?" Pepper blinks as the demands of work clash with the demands of her body. The resulting mental tangle is just enough to throw her off her stride.

"Did Jarvis just mean to douse us with cold water?" she asks Tony. Because now she's completely distracted. "Why are we meeting with PR again? Other than the fact that they want to talk to you and I'm your PA so of course I'm going to be there to take good notes?

She scowls up at the ceiling "Oh, and Jarvis, if you ever do that when we're not immediately expecting company, I will go spill something on your consoles." Interruptions were rude, and the AI should have known better.

"My apologies, Ms Potts." Jarvis doesn't sound apologetic at all. If anything he sounds just a little bit sulky...well that and more than a little amused. "Your presence has been requested along with Anthony's because I believe they genuinely wish to get your input on several options that have been considered as a means of dealing with the current upheaval. As for Mr. Stark? His job is dual - he is supposed to be there to do the same, and to discuss the possible ramifications of the double lawsuit he's going to be faced with by the end of the week."

"I told you that guy in the garage was going to press charges," she mutters under he breath.

She finishes drying herself off with the towel instead of merely using it as body covering, examining what Tony's laid out for her as she does so. Skirt, shoes, whimsical looking dark green top… There is definitely something missing.

"Tony...there's no underwear here." She says after a moment unsure whether to be disgusted with him or amused.

Tony is standing in the doorway, and his face is a little red. "Jarvis, please pull up file 7-86-B and print out the contents – I just got a notification to look them over from corporate security. I hope the top is acceptable. I know I know you don't tend to do colors, but it's button down and lose, so it shouldn't look awkward with your sling."

Pepper only waits, gesturing to the obvious lack of underwear. Tony squirms a little. "I didn't know what you'd prefer, what would be easiest for you to get into or out of."

"And you couldn't judge that based on prior experience?" she asks, just a little bit amused. "What is it about my underwear drawer that turns you into a fourteen year old boy?"

He blushes even deeper, but his chin goes up. "If you're done tormenting me...can you pick what you want? I really need to go and look over that file." He checks his watch, scowls a little, throws a glance over his shoulder. "Because they should be here in like seven more minutes and I haven't even re-read the pre-meeting brief yet."

"I haven't seen it either." She digs through her suitcase and pulls out a butter yellow matching set. The bra has its pluses and minuses. It's strapless, so it isn't going to pull on anything, but it also fastens in the back. Though, that means she is going to need help getting out of it, which could actually be a bonus.

"Help please," she requests, dropping the towel and holding the cups of the bra against her breasts. She turns her back to him and looked at him over her shoulder, enjoying the way that his eyes cross. Okay, so maybe her patience has some limits. She sees no reason to stand by and let him do all the tormenting.

Tony mutters something under his breath that she is sure is physically impossible, but he does step up to fasten the clasp with hands that linger just a moment longer than they should.

"Four minutes, Potts." He mutters through clenched teeth, before he retreats purposefully out of the bedroom and back into the living room. Less than thirty seconds later she hears Jarvis announce a car pulling up to the house. A minute after that the buzzer rings announcing a knock at the mansion's front door.

"Well...I guess that rules out panties," she mutters. She just climbs into the skirt and the button up camisole he's laid out for her. She dons the real sling that's sitting on the bed, then shrugs into her jacket as best she can. Tony thoughtfully left out a pair of black flats and she slips them on. They're a little small and she feels like she's somehow lost more than just three inches of height without her usual shoes. 'Well, at least I waxed the day of the accident,' she tells herself, because she certainly can't do much with her hair. If she'd had to deal with prickly legs too….

Yeah, she's not going there.

She hurries out of the bedroom, and tries not to look as if she'd been hitting on her boss just a few minutes earlier.

When she finally leaves the room there are three people being led into the hallway by a distracted looking Tony. Just the sight of the gaggle is enough to make her want to groan with disapproval. Mildred Drake Evans to was the one they'd assigned to this problem? No wonder there was photo-manipulated porn of her all over Google right now.

The woman was a ball buster at most parties yes, but she'd never really grasped the use of the modern day technologies outside of a newspaper's society page.

"Mildred. Steve. Hank." She nods to friendly greetings. Pepper pretends they haven't just caught her coming out of Tony's room - did any of them _know_ it was Tony's room for that matter? She starts to hold out her hand for them to shake before she winces and remembers that, oh yeah, her shoulder and right arm are _painful_.

"Are you all right, Ms. Potts?" Stephen Frakes asks in concern. She grits her teeth and nods. "Just a little bit sore, which is to be expected this soon after the injury. Mr. Stark? Have you seen my muscle relaxants? I haven't been able to find them since I woke up this morning..."

Of course, she'd never actually held them in her hands to begin with, since he'd been the one shoving them down her throat since the night he first brought her home.

"Master bathroom by the sink," Tony answers automatically. "In the cupboard by my razor above the cup with the toothbrushes." Then he freezes like a deer in the headlights. And she feels her eyes slide shut as a terrible blush colors the whole of her face.

Beside her she thinks she hears Stephen snort a little, as Hank's left eyebrow climbs somewhere into his receding hairline. Mildred is the only one who looks completely unphased - she's watching them both with a blank face.

'Graceful, Stark. Real graceful.' Time to do a little clean up. She forces her voice to sound amused and a little chiding. "Mr. Stark, the next time you feel the urge to put something away - which I know won't be for awhile - will you please remember to make sure it's yours?" She smiles at their guests to break the tension hoping like hell that. they will take the offered bait. "Coffee anyone? And I think we've got tea as well…" She doesn't wait for an answer before spinning on her heel and retreating towards the kitchen.

She still needed her medicine but he'd just guaranteed she wouldn't be taking it. Because like hell she was going to go into his room _now_ to get the damn things.

What followed was an extremely awkward ten minutes of silence, as she made her way into the kitchen and dragged down the mugs from the kitchen cupboard. She turned on the cappuccino machine and went in search of filters. The kitchen freezer made an awkward kind of hissing sound as she pulled open the door and pulled out the stored coffee beans.

"Are you sure you should be doing that, Darlin'?" A cheerful voice asks from behind her, and she startles a little before turns to see that Hank has actually followed her into the kitchen. The auburn haired man tips his head in silent apology. "I'm sorry, Miss Pepper...but in my neck of the woods a gentleman just doesn't let an injured lady wear herself when he's got capable hands. Why don't you just show this old coot where you keep your supplies, and then go find a comfortable spot to take a seat for awhile?"

Pepper stares for a moment at the man in front of her, her mind suddenly flashing back to the one time she's had the privilege of meeting him before. Hank Whitley Bascomb: though his name is actually Henry. She hasn't worked with him much before this, but she suspects that's going to change soon if his natural charm is reflected by an equal amount of professional competence. His accent is a low southern drawl, not exactly Texan, but not the low throaty purr that probably cam from New Orleans or Southern Mississippi either.

It's warm and kind and makes her think of Kenny Rogers and hot chocolate served by the fire.

"Oh. No, I'm...I'm fine." She smiles as if to emphasize her point. "I've actually been taking it easy most of the day. Doctor's orders. It's nice to be up and around again." She's rambling and she _knows_ she's rambling but she can't seem to stop. "Though I won't turn down help carrying this all out I you're offering. I haven't waited tables in years, and I never did it then with only one working hand."

Hank nods. "You probably traded up for harder work...most folks never really appreciate how hard the ones who spend their time at the bottom work to get the ones who shine up to the top."

There's a compliment somewhere inside that statement that has her blushing even more.

Hank's more than charming though, he also seems to have the perfect instinct of when and how to move on a conversation. He takes the mugs from the counter and starts looking for a tray as if there's nothing usual in what he's saying. "Now…where does an old troublemaker like me find silverware and sugar or cream to add to these itty bitty coffee cups?"

"Silverware is to the left of the sink, sugar in the cupboard in the corner, and Mr. Stark can get himself noticed without any help from me. I believe that's why this meeting is being held, ironically." Pepper tacks that on as if it's of no more importance than the coffee implements. She likes Hank, she decides. And she knows he'll take it the way she meant it, with a wink and a smile and a gentle but silent offer of thanks.

The older man smiles back at her amicably. "You won't see me complain' about it either. There's such a thing as job security."

He finishes picking up the mugs, moves over to the refrigerator door and pulls it open. "Though frankly there are also days that the modern world makes an old bird like me want to put a serious pounding on someone. Especially if I'm stuck dealing with one of those idiots who can't mind their own business or don't show proper respect to a lady...no matter where she stands on the metaphorical totem pole."

Another compliment that Pepper hadn't realized she needed. Still there's something to be said for keeping up appearances. "I believe where I'm standing most of the time these days is on Mr. Stark's toes. It's really the only way to get him to behave."

Hank laughs at that admission, loud and delighted. "Somehow I suspect, Miss Potts, he's not the type to mind. He's got a good head on his shoulders." Then the older man's face grows very serious. "Don't you let them bother you, either. Dealing with snakes is a particular hobby off mine, and I take pleasure in saying I do it quite well. And as for the matter of truth or rumor, I don't give a damn. It ain't nobody's business, what happens behind a man's closed front door and don't you forget it. Well not unless there ends up being blood on the floor as a result, and I don't see that being a problem here."

Pepper smiles again, wondering how bizarre this conversation as going to get. She's not ignorant of the comfort that this man is trying to offer her but at the moment she's just not sure if she really needs it. "I don't particularly care what other people say either, other than I think the whole lot of them are insane. Mr. Stark cares though, and unfortunately men like you are few and far between. Most of the world thinks that the consequences my dislocated shoulder are their business as long as it might affect their wallets."

Hank snorts. "Yes well most of the world, Ms Potts, is populated by what my daddy used to refer to as 'no good meddlin' pussies.'"

The words are frank, and almost startle her to laughter. Which makes her wince just a little as the restraint of not doing so causes her shoulder to throb a little.

Hank frowns then and reaches out to take the bag from her. "All right now I really do insist that you go and sit down a spell. Go out and find a chair, or at least try to calm down your young man. Tell 'em I'll be back with this new fangled piss in about three shakes of a leg and we'll get down to business."

This time she can't contain the laughter no matter how much it hurts. "Oh, ow," she says, holding her shoulder but still giggling. "I'm going. I promise." She leaves the room and sneaks down the hall into Tony's room. If that conversation was any indication, she was going to want to be medicated for the upcoming discussion.

She finds the tour group on the back patio, taking in the view. "Mr. Bascomb has coffee ready for us," she announces to the crowd at large, though after several seconds she's eying Tony in particular. It looks like he's finally pulled himself together – though there is something about his posture right now that has her unsure, maybe even a little bit worried. He looks…he looks like he did after climbing off that plane when he'd returned from Afghanistan, like one wrong move might send him tumbling.

He's under control, but she worries why he needs to be. It couldn't still be because of that stupid slip of the tongue in the hallway.

"I suggest we get started. Mr. Stark appreciates your willingness to meet here for my sake, and we'd hate to keep anyone from their dinner, so let's get down to business." Her smile is calm, practiced on hundreds of slightly uncomfortable occasions prior to this. It holds more comfortable authority than she probably realizes.

She sounds like the woman in charge, which, all public façade aside she for all intents and purposes, currently is.

Mildred looks up from the view she's gawking at and nods her head in agreement. "Well then, let's all find someplace comfortable to sit and figure out the best way that we should go about handling all of this. Where would you be most comfortable?"

Stephen seems to nod, as does Tony, though Pepper notices he's not meeting anyone's eyes at the moment, choosing instead to stare out at the waves below them in the ocean for another few seconds.

"The boardroom?" she asks, referring to the small one that was built to adjoin her office

Tony shakes his head, finally speaking. "Let's just sit in the living room. The couches are more comfortable and there are pillows if we need to brace your shoulder or back. Besides, for now at least we're not going to need anything very technical like an overhead or a viewscreen."

The others nod in agreement and start filing back into the living room. Pepper gestures for their two guests to go first, hanging back to ask Tony in a whisper. "Are you alright?"

He nods. "Just trying to put a few of my thoughts together before we begin." But there is something...a tension in his eyes. Something that might be scared or might be angry, hell it might be both.

She doesn't know exactly what to make of that emotion, but it's frightening her even before they have a chance to begin. She knows, instinctively before they even start that something has irrevocably changed.

She doesn't know how or why though, and short of delaying the meeting further to try and tug the truth out of him there is nothing she can do.

The four of them make their way to the living room without further discussion. Tony eases Pepper down into the most comfortable seat by the window, and then he disappears into his bedroom. A moment later he re-emerges and drops a familiar pill she knows is Flexeril into the palm of her hand. After that, he actually sits down on the footrest in front of her. As if he's somehow flanking her against whatever's coming in the next couple of minutes.

The prickles on the back of her neck get worse but she forces herself to wait for him to start speaking anyway.

"Why don't we start at the top?" Tony says after a moment. "Give me a sit rep on the things I've asked you all to follow, and let me know how things with the media are progressing." His voice is calm but he's very much in boss mode. She can see it in the way he slumps his posture into an almost deliberate and loose position of disinterest.

Steven is the first to speak. "The media was getting bored with the tapes that they had from the other day. Unfortunately there's new footage available from latest conflict last night..." Stephen shrugs. "We haven't made a statement yet mainly because we aren't sure yet what we should confirm and what we should deny."

"I hit a bastard for being a bastard. End of story."

"I wish I could say it was that simple but some of the witnesses who were there are claiming it was some kind of unprovoked attack?"

"Unprovoked my ass," Tony mutters into his coffee.

"It was provoked," Pepper clarified. "Because they were enacting harassment. I live in an apartment without an elevator, and the seven flights of stairs are a bit beyond me at the moment. Mr. Stark was accompanying me so I could pick up some clothes, and the media followed us into the parking structure. They were on private property and kept on getting in our way after we expressedly asked them to leave."

"Do you have any proof of this? Ways we can confirm you side of the story?" Hank's voice is cautious, though in no way condemning. She can see in his eyes that he'd actually like to congratulate Tony.

She still shakes her head though. "No. Other than the security feed that can prove they were trespassing. However, neither Mr. Stark or myself are in the habit of carrying around recording devices. We're not the Paparazzi."

Mildred sighs. "Well it didn't exactly help settle things. And there's also the matter of the first incident…when you broke your shoulder, Ms Potts. We never really addressed the entire situation. Since your release from the hospital there have been repeated requests for an interview or at least a personal confirmation of your health. And at this point I would recommend a press conference with you actually making a statement." The woman grimaces. "Because frankly the more we say 'no comment' the more the price goes up on any piece of gossip that the media thinks could be even remotely credible. And given the way it's escalating…well something needs to be done. A press conference at least allows us some measure of control."

Pepper looks a little confused, and scratches her head in annoyance. "Why can't we just issue a release saying that my shoulder was dislocated - not broken - and barring further damage should heal on its own? Do we really need to have a press conference held for that?" She had no desire to be gawked at just to watch a bunch of idiot reporters try and voice a lot of other personal and highly inappropriate questions.

Hank sighs and then speaks. "We've already considered that. The problem is that given Mr Stark's notoriety and his level of response to your injury, the rumors of his mental instability are starting to look almost valid again. That being the case, it's in everyone's best interests to get you both on camera temporarily, even if it's just for you to smile and say you're healing nicely and perhaps your employer is a tad reluctant to learn anyone else's filing system. That way everybody sees things are normal and you both get back to business. With any luck that should calm a lot of the chaos and at least help the stocks recover from their current lethargy the last couple of days."

"Fine," Pepper says, rolling her eyes. She's got one leg crossed over the other; she knows no one can see her feet. It's safe enough to poke Tony in the back with her toe for getting her into this.

He shifts in his seat, but she doesn't think it's her nudge that has his shoulders suddenly tense. "I've already ruled out that option," he says in his "I'm the Boss" voice. "I told you that I don't want Pepper under that kind of stress. I want her kept off the cameras."

They all turn and look at him when he says that and he's the only one who apparently doesn't realize that method is not only unlikely to work, but also downright _insane._

Pepper begins the next statement first, speaking very carefully. "Tony, it's hardly a stress to stand there and just read a statement. I, unlike others who shall remain nameless, do not feel the need to improvise or answer randomly inserted questions. It will be over in less than five minutes."

Out of the corner of her eye Pepper notices Hank smile at that statement, as he gives her what may be a wink. "I believe the lady has a point, Sir," the man says soothingly. "We can carefully preselect who gets invited to this shindig, and set some very firm ground rules about what kind of things can and cannot be asked while she's not in the room. It may not fix the problem entirely, or cause an immediate change in public reaction, but it will be a good way to sat least start to reassure the public that things are not as 'Days of our Lives' at Stark Industries as they've been led by the media to think."

Tony's shaking his head, and this time Pepper wants to kick him, not just nudge him. If they'd been alone, she would have. But they are in the company of her coworkers and his employees, and she _will_ endeavor to be professional. To be fair it's not the first time she's ever seen him becoming suddenly unreasonable for unknown reason, but it is the first time it's ever been quite this bad.

"Mr. Stark, the reason we're meeting this afternoon is to discuss how to go about damage control," she reminds him. "We can't do that if you reject options out of hand. We're talking about a press conference, for god's sake. I'll be on my feet for a grand total of fifteen minutes at maximum, and then you can return to paying me an outrageous salary for sitting around and doing nothing."

This time Hank doesn't manage to restrain a snicker, and Stephen shoots him a warning look, at the same time Tony scowls at him.

"May I ask you what you find so funny?" Tony's voice is clipped - even borderline angry, and when Pepper looks back over her shoulder at him she is surprised to realize the hands he's got perched on his knees are actually starting to fist.

"Nothing, Sir. It's just the camera's really didn't do you justice. You aren't just protective, you're protectively insane.

Pepper frowns, and then leans forward so she can actually see his face. He looks like a man forcing himself to watch something unpleasant, something he would stop if he could. When he avoids her eyes completely, she gets nervous.

"You're not telling me something." Her voice is soft with the impact of that realization. "Why don't you want to do this press conference, and don't give me a line of bull about my health."

The people across from her space on the couch stir uneasily, as if they wish they were anywhere but where they were at the present. Finally Mildred speaks, quietly, with a little too much deference. "I must admit Sir, I find your reaction a little confusing. This is the best way we can think of to deal with the situation and diffuse the tension. Our only other real option would be to transfer her out the LA section of Stark Industries and have her serve somewhere in Europe until the scandal dies down."

Mildred's not Tony, and Pepper doesn't have her answer yet, but it doesn't matter because she knows she has to nip _that_ option in the bud. Because it's _not_ an option. There's no way in hell she's leaving him, not after last night.

"I'm not going to Europe," she says calmly. "As long as everyone in this room is being unreasonable, I figure _I_ can turn that option down flat."

"Pepper -"

"No. You _know_ why I won't even consider it," she tells Tony when he tries to reason with her. "And don't even _pretend_ you don't. I am not the sort who runs. Now, why don't we share as a group what's making everyone so uncomfortable? Because - as I seem to be the one most involved in these discussions, thought I can't imagine why - I'm getting tired of being left out of the loop. And I can't help solve this without all the needed information."

She then locks him in what is undeniably a staring contest of epic proportions.

Tony sighs, very loudly. "Fine. I'd hoped to wait until security got here and provided a bit more updated information. However since you insist..." He takes a manila envelope that has been sitting on the floor by his chair. "This is why I'm not crazy about the idea of putting you in the public eye, or more precisely making you a target...Just be aware, Pepper, that you asked, and the pictures in there are pretty disturbing and graphic."

He hands the folder to her without another word of explanation, then looks to the three sitting across from him. "I'm going to get another cappuccino, would you three like more refreshments or a drink?"

All three of them make excuses to leave the room. Restroom. Phone call. Stretch the old bones. Pepper watches them go almost in disbelief, then looks down at the packet in her hands.

"Jarvis? Is Tony monitoring me in some way from the kitchen?"

"Affirmative."

She sighs heavily. After this sort of reaction there's no way in hell that she's going to handle this well. At least she doesn't think there is.

Pepper opens the envelope and carefully draws its contents out into her lap. They're all face down. She steels herself and then slowly turns over the first paper.

It's a photograph. So to speak. It's actually one of the ones she'd looked at the night before, the one with Tony turning to her to talk to her about something. Except in this version of the picture, she's not there to talk to. Someone carefully took her out, and replaced her with the image of a corpse. And not some horror movie corpse. She's pretty sure this is just about as close to the real thing that she'll come to outside of a morgue.

She flips the picture back over, doesn't have the stomach to deal with looking at the rest. She can't imagine they're much different. Maybe some of them are worse.

She sorts through the papers until she comes across one that's not glossy. It feels like regular printer paper. She inhales so deeply her lungs protest and then turns it over.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE BITCH." Those are the only words on the page. They're only printed once, not even in an exaggerated font. Times New Roman in 12 point has never looked so menacing.

It's enough. She stuffs everything back into the envelope with hands that are trembling.

Drops it to the floor and puts her face in her hands. She's not sure how long she sits that way before a quiet voice breaks the silence.

"Are you alright?" It's a quite voice at her shoulder. She looks up to find Mildred standing there, with eyes that are compassionate and far too sympathetic. The other woman looks tired, and somehow less false than her day to day façade normally presents to the world. "I told Mr Stark to let me come out first. Some things are easier to discuss when it's women to women."

She is surprised to find herself latching on to the motherly concern that lies within the inquiry, but that's her response all the same. "Why did this happen? It's been less than a week." Pepper asks. She doesn't know why this bothers her more than anything. Probably because it's easier for her mind to comprehend.

This kind of hatred feels like its come from literally out of _nowhere_, and she's not quite sure what to make of it.

"You have the love of one of the world's richest and most well known men, Pepper. And he showed it on national TV. He dropped his guise right out in the open for everyone to see, and there's nothing that can be done by anyone to take that vulnerability back. Given the fervor of his reaction, the press can't in good conscience _not _pay attention. Granted I've always believed he couldn't keep up the 'playboy guise' indefinably, but I do recognize why he utilized it as a way to protect his sexual partners. After all, if dozens of women have had one a one night stand with Tony Stark, none of them will ever have to wonder if one was more special than another. It may not be the most moral way imagined to prevent this kind of thing, but it does tend to derail the serious crazies..."

"And as long as I appeared to be nothing more than just another faceless employee - overworked and under appreciated - then I wasn't a threat to anyone." She smiles tightly. "Well..." Pepper shakes off as much as her shock as she can. What she's learned doesn't really change anything. She's not leaving Tony. "Now that I have a better grasp of the situation, it's time to have an actual meeting."

Mildred smiles at that just a little, and then nods, pushing herself up from the cushions. "I'll round up Stephen and Hank then. Meanwhile I suggest you try and find your erstwhile employer."

Pepper can just imagine the discussion they'll get into if she goes to find him. They can't afford to be alone until after everyone leaves. "Jarvis, please tell Mr. Stark that we're ready to resume the meeting."

"He says he will be out to join you in perhaps another minute."

Which meant he was off somewhere brooding and needed to put on his game face. Brooding, obsessing, it really didn't matter. In this case it all had the same goal, to avoid the impending nuclear meltdown. One of these days she was going to have to manage a miracle, and teach him to actually talk about the things that were upsetting him. Research and Development would hate when his stress-based productivity dropped yes, but at least he'd be a lot more mentally _healthy_.

Tony's the last one to come back into the room, and when he does, Pepper hardly recognizes him. His face is too calm, too smooth. He looks for all the world as if he's in complete control not only of himself but of the situation. And she knows that's not true, and she knows she's about to prove it.

"I want to go through with the press conference," she says. "Alone. I think it'd be best if we give a reason for Mr. Stark's absence, and leave the talking to me."

Tony's head shoots up and before he even realizes it he is practically spitting out a reverent, "No. Absolutely No Way." He draws in a deep breath and says, with every bit of authority he can muster, "I don't trust security enough to throw them after the last few days. If you insist on this meeting I _will_ be there, even if I need to stay backstage and out of the way of the cameras."

"Tony, I will be seen as less of a threat if you're not hovering over me," Pepper says in what she thinks is a reasonable voice. "There's no guarantee that you'll actually remain out of sight. Hank's right; where my safety is concerned sometimes you get a little…unreasonable."

"Thank you so much for your never ending trust in my ability to act like a grown up."

There's a sarcastic bent to his voice as he says it, along with a clear pang of hurt in his eyes.

"Tony, you've always been impulsive, and right now you're also very protective." Pepper glances at their audience, a little uncomfortable having this conversation in front of them, but they're all doing their best furniture impersonations. "It's a bad combination," she continues in a softer voice. "Look, if we do this at headquarters, we can virtually lock that place down like a safe. I'll be _fine_."

He looks like he wants to fight her, but she just keeps looking at him. Raises an eyebrow as if in silent challenge. 'Come on Stark, don't you trust me?' It's a risk but it seems to work. His jaw clenches but he nods with a tight nod of acceptance. "Fine...do it your way. But Happy is going to be personally running your security from here on out...and no, the matter is not up for debate. If I let you do this, you're getting a permanent body guard for the duration, and no I'm not negotiating the point."

"As my only other option right now seems to be deportation, I'll accept," she says. Right now she'd be happy to come to a semblance of an agreement, because she knows that he won't drop the matter that easily.

"Then we have an agreement," Hank finally interjects. "Stephen and I will get to work then, arranging the press date." He stands extends a hand. "We'll get back to you on the details."

"Who sets the press list?" Tony asks after a moment.

"I'll do it personally, and send it to Pepper in advance for her perusal and acceptance," Mildred is quick to reassure him of this intent, and he nods in grim acknowledgement.

As she brings the meeting to an end, something she has experience doing, Pepper wonders if anyone other than her can see the uneasiness and subtle rage that is blooming behind Tony's careful façade. While she sees everyone out, Tony is a constant presence at her shoulder. He's probably one of the reasons everyone is so quick to leave.

She closes the door and turns to him. Waits for it...

"I don't like this Pepper." Tony informs her point blank. "But at this point I'm also too pissed to argue about it. This is not over...be warned of the fact. If you give Happy one lick of trouble when he's following you around, I will call up CNN and cancel the damn press conference myself."

'And here we go. Stark just made the first volley.' Pepper steels herself for the conversation they're going to be forced to have. They're not ready for it, but they're out of time.


	5. Chapter 5

The last time Pepper had been faced with this level of desperation, she was eight

The last time Pepper had been faced with this level of desperation, she was eight.

The snarling, the eyes that held a sense of being trapped, the instinct to fight – they were all unmistakable. She'd seen this before in a stray dog she'd found one cool, misty night during her summer vacation. Pepper remembers the mutt in question...a small mixed terrier with fleas and a poorly groomed coat. It had been stuck in an old rusty fence thanks to a half ingrown collar.

It had been half starved and in pain but unfortunately it had also been terrified and aggressive as well. The animal had been too terrified to let anyone close enough to help her without trying to bite their hands first.

Looking at Tony now, Pepper gets a sense of the same sort of soul. A mind so tired and worn down by fear and exhaustion that its owner had lost sight of what his own needs actually were. Across the room Tony Stark is pacing, like a tiger who's spent too many hours in a cage. "I don't like this, Pepper," he informs her point blank. "But at this point I'm also too pissed to argue about it. This is not over...be warned of this fact: If you give Happy one lick of trouble when he's following you around, I will call up CNN and cancel the damn press conference myself."

Pepper takes a deep breath and forces herself to remain calm. "Tony, please…it's not like I am in the habit of foolishly risking my life."

The man across from her doesn't look impressed. If anything he looks more agitated now than he would have if she'd stayed silent. She remembers that dog again, and remembers that by the end of the day she hadn't been able to do anything for it because it'd been too traumatized to let her.

And she can't bear that kind of failure with Tony. She needs to choose her actions and words carefully; if she gets upset this is only going to escalate into something they'll both regret. She consciously exhales the breath she's just pulled into her lungs. "If you have something rational to say I'll listen. You know I respect your thoughts and your opinions. But you're not talking right now Tony, you're reacting, and it's not really fair to either of us."

The man across from her actually flinches And for a moment she regrets the brutal honesty. It seems to be working though, so she continues. "The strategy we came up with will work – hell, all the others agreed with me."

"Yes, well none of you even tolerated any dissenting opinions. Which is ironic considering none of you have any previous experience with this kind of thing." Tony groans and runs a hand back through his hair. "You know what? I'm getting thoroughly sick of everyone ignoring every single word I say. For once...just _once_ could you at least pretend to trust my judgment or heed my advice? Because I've dealt with stalkers before. And this one is not just a run of the mill nut. This one scares the hell out of _me_. And I, Pepper - no matter what you think - I don't scare that easy."

The real meaning of his words he doesn't share. _'For God's sake Pepper. I'm trying to protect you, so what in hell do I have to do in order to convince you to __**let me**__?' _He doesn't say this though, and Pepper cannot read his mind. Instead she focuses on what she thinks is driving him: the gut level fear that has him throwing reporters over barricades and punching out reporters for what he sees are slights to her honor.

"I'm not running away from you because of this, Tony. Sending me to Europe isn't going to solve anything, it won't make this go away. It won't get rid of whoever it is that you're afraid will try and hurt me."

And it would leave him equally vulnerable and alone. She couldn't risk the separation.

Tony doesn't see that, though because she doesn't speak the words. "No. But it will buy us some time to figure out who is responsible, and keep you out of the range of a creep who has no apparent objection to _killing_ you until Jarvis and I can locate him. Hell, I'll even get Rhodey involved if you think I'm too reckless to be trusted to handle it alone."

The words hurt to say, because they imply that she doubts his judgment. He wonders if he would have ever slept with her before if he'd realized where it would leave them right now. How much it would upset their balance.

"And if you never find him?" Pepper inquires after a moment. "Am I going to have to resign myself to a life on the other side of the Atlantic?" She shakes her head. "No. Not worth it." She knows she'll never make it alone.

"I hate to break this to you, Pepper, but that's just _your_ opinion." Tony's eyes are hard, but they're also filled with agony. Because he doesn't want her to leave; he doesn't want to be separated from her anymore than she wants to be sent away. But he'd rather love her across the ocean than have to watch her get hurt or lay her body down into the ground if he fails to stop this.

He doesn't admit that either, though he knows he should, because the frustration he's been so tightly suppressing just won't get out of the way. Instead he tries another route. This one of reason. Well that and a certain formality he's never tried to use against her before.

She's his employee after all, and that may be the only form of respect she can offer him anymore

"I'm not just your lover, Pepper, I'm your _boss_, and it's my contractual obligation to secure the safety of my employees." He sighs again and grits his teeth, running a frustrated hand back through his hair. "I'm trying to do my job here, Pepper. To keep you safe. Why is it no one – and you especially – seems willing to let me?"

Her throat goes tight when he tries to reduce this to employer and employee because they've _never_ been merely that. Even when she first started working for him their relationship had been different. It'd _had_ to be different because in order to do her job she had always needed to be the person that he couldn't brush aside.

They'd always been closer to equals. But this... This was something deeper. Their dynamic had always been based upon them having a distance. One that simply wasn't there any longer.

So Pepper pales. Thinks of the worst possibilities. "Yes, you're my employer…but you're also my lover and I'd think that earns me a little special status. Damn it, Tony, even normal employees usually have a right to turn down a job related transfer if they don't think it's worth the advantages it would bring."

Except this wasn't about her job to him, instead it was about preserving her life.

And so he sighs. "Yes, you're right. Though that process is generally done as a prelude towards career change or quitting." He doesn't mean it like it sounds but the words still pass his lips. She startles like he's hit her, and he groans in frustration." And you wonder why I was so reluctant to start this whole thing up."

He motions between them, somehow summing up all the changes in their relationship, "There's a reason I kept quiet, after the initial confrontation with that reporter, Pepper. Because I honestly didn't know if we could handle the change in our relationship…"

He's talking about the way she just disregarded him, she thinks he means the sex. He's not done either, though the words have completely cored her. "I mean, you automatically assume everything I think or do or want is somehow less pure or clear minded? Why? Because we finally had some incredible sex? Tell me, why does being your lover automatically turn me into less than what I was before? Because it sounds a hell of a lot like what people have always accused me of doing to my one night stands."

He says 'having sex' she hears 'being in love' and she jerks in pain in her initial reaction.

"You're accusing me of turning you into a one night stand," Pepper says flatly. She doesn't mean to say it, but it just sort of springs from the growing swell of pain inside of her.

She can see it all going wrong, and she's scared, and she wants him to _stop_.

"Yeah, well forgive me if I'm having trouble not feeling like one. Because I've had a little more practice at this than you have had, Pepper. I've been dealing with the media since I was _fourteen_. But you…oh heaven forbid you listen to me." He raises his hands, "No…you've got it all figured out, and my feeling or opinions don't matter a bit. Because I'm 'in love with you' and it apparently makes me too biased to judge. Tell me Pepper, how am I supposed to interpret the way you feel about me? After all, you're not suffering the same kind of treatment. So maybe you're what…a little 'fond' of me?"

His face is a hideous, impenetrable mask as he turns to leave the room, and she cuts him off at the doorway before he can leave. She can't help feeling that if he leaves now, it's over. Love or not. And she'll end up in Europe, and he'll end up with a resignation on his desk a few weeks later.

"I _love_ you, Tony," she says as she cuts him off at the doorway so he has no choice but to stop or walk over her. "I love you, I made a commitment to stay with you, and just because bad times have come sooner than either of us could have expected, doesn't mean I'm running. So tell me after last night, why should I believe you're not reacting out of fear when you're actively working to leave me?"

Tony sighs, than shakes his head, "I want you _safe_. Is that so unforgivable? Sex is not worth your _life_, Pepper. I don't care how good we are in the sack. I'll take you alive and furious every time over you being dead. Because loving you enough to get you killed isn't noble, it is idiotic…and despite your attitude in that meeting, I'm actually not that stupid.

"I love you, _yes_. I want you, _yes_. But that can all _go to hell_ if the price is you getting hurt because of me."

He leaves her a pitiful bleeding wreck, but she doesn't show it. She didn't mistake that look in his eyes on that video, and neither apparently had anyone else. She also hadn't mistaken his desperation the night before when he'd said that if she let him love her, he wouldn't be able to let him go. And even though she really, really wants to walk away right now, she can't let herself ignore the fact that he might be speaking a horribly mangled version of the truth from his perspective.

If he walks away now, she's not sure she'll get him back, and the possibility terrifies her and spurs her into action.

"I'm not leaving you," she says with deadly purpose, and then she steps up to him and gently slants her mouth across his. "And you're not leaving me either. Because that was the deal, and I am not renegotiating. I'm sorry if you feel unmanned by the fact, but you don't get to love me so much that you try and stop me from loving you as well."

She steps away from his and starts to unbutton his shirt "And if you don't like it, Anthony, well you'll have to win that argument in bed."

He whimpers then, like the boy that he is. Like the man who's literally drowning in two feet of water and an ocean of miscommunication. "This won't fix the problem," he mutters against her mouth.

"Yes it will," she informs before she once more presses her lips to his. Because she knows he can't touch her and let her leave. She's counting on it in fact. He was the one who made that particular confession last night, and if she uses it against him today? Well then she makes the decision in love and desperation.

So she traces his collarbone, and kisses the skin she's revealing. She reaches up one hand to cup the side of his face, and she kisses him the way that he wanted to this morning.

And then he shivers. And then he groans, and his hands drop and lift her till she's pressed tight against him. "Tony..." she murmurs against his lips. "I love you," she gasps. She's not sure if he's hearing her or not. But then he is pulling the back of her shirt out, trying to get to literally any available skin.

"You can't be a big enough bastard to scare me off." She whispers the words and he spasms and moans as he finally touches his hands to her lower back.

His hands are shaking and his breathing is hard. His legs are trembling with an intensity of shakes that make her wonder if he can keep them both upright much longer. "Tony..." She whispers. "Find a bed. Find a table. Damnit...find _some_thing before you fall down. But we're going to settle this, and we're going to settle it now."

His wordless answer is to head for the duvet-like couch on the still open back balcony.

She clings to him, not because she thinks he might drop her - though the thought has crossed her mind - but because she doesn't want to know what his reaction to her attempting to put space between them might be. She's got a bull by the horns here; he's not just rattled, he's terrified of possibly losing her, of the chance she might be killed.

She doesn't know what to tell him, how to reassure him, even though she lives with the same fear for him whenever he puts on his Iron Man suit. The difference between them is though, she's never become paralyzed by the fear. But then, she's never lived through the traumatic death of a loved one before either.

Her heart aches for him, wondering how he got through the death of his parents. Not well, if this is any indication.

Then they're outside and he's laying her on the duvet, stripping off her shirt and pulling the zipper down on her skirt so he can get access. They're in a war and they're not even fighting for the same things. His hands are large, and she's always known it. She's also found it strange, because they shouldn't be so dexterous considering their size. She's seen him play a piano though, and she's seen him do minute repair work on a microchip that would have crushed under less careful fingers.

When he wants to, Tony can make his touch as light as cotton, as near to non-existent as wet silk. His hands are none of that now though, they are desperation. They are everything she doesn't hear that he cannot find the words to say.

He slides the gap of fabric open as soon as her zipper reaches bottom, slides his hand inside and growls at the restriction that the fabric puts on his reach.

"Tony." She says. "TONY."

His eyes slide up to hers but he's barely behind them. "Too many clothes," is all he can get out. He tugs on the skirt's zipper again. And then he gives up and simply flips up her skirt to reach the flesh that he's seeking. She gasps and her head kicks back as her body goes rigid. The sun on her face is warm, but only that. All the heat she feels is spilling into her from the fingers between her legs. Distantly she can hear him growling and it sends another shudder through her before he even presses down on her clit again. Her thighs lock around his hand, but it doesn't stop him, doesn't even make him pause long enough for her to adjust.

"No underwear, Virginia?" he growls against her neck as he starts nipping at her collarbone. "You came to a meeting without any underwear?" He kisses her roughly in punishment.

When she tries to touch him he takes hold of her left hand and pins it to the cushions. Her other hand is still bound by the sling and _his_ other hand is still between her thighs though he's on the move.

For once…for _once,_ he vows, she will let him take care of her.

When he slips two fingers inside of her she cries out and her thighs part, and she instinctively rocks into the touch. "No time for underwear," she gasps as her pelvis jerks up. It's half justification and half protest. Her hips are moving in time with the rhythm he's providing, but it's just not enough.

She's close...so close, she wants to come. And Tony is livid and needy and pushing in all the best possible ways that he refused to just hours ago.

He is angry and he is scared and he is hungry but he also is in control. He is not going anywhere now, and there are simply no words to impart her degree of _relief. _Because they work best when they work _together_. When they take _turns._ And somewhere along the way they'd both lost track of how to do that.

When they are done with this they are going to have to discuss that subject, she knows, as her back arches and she squirms against the cushion.

His fingers reach, probe, find the spot inside her and press up hard. She sees him soak in her desperation as she lifts up her head. "Tony - slow down, I'm going to come..." But it's too late. She hits the wall and she hits it so hard she screams her release to the open blue sky as the waves of pleasure come.

His mouth comes down on hers, stifling what would have been a very loud cry that resembled his name. She tenses and shudders in waves, her thighs once more locked around his hand. It doesn't keep him from thrusting into her through her climax, and even once she's still and limp under him he keeps rubbing at her in the most madding way.

"_Tony_..." She doesn't know when he let go of her hand, but she's able to move it, run it over his shoulders and rest it against the back of his neck as she tries to recover. She whimpers a little as aftershocks ripple through her when pulls his hand out from between her legs. It's a struggle just to find the energy to raise her eyelids, but she forces it to happen. She needs to see his face right now.

The man above her is relieved. He looks like he's actually found himself. Like he can finally breathe for the very first time.

And then he speaks. "Why is this the only time… the only way… you let me just take care of you? Why is it the only place you actually hear me?"

Pepper doesn't know what to say, so she says nothing. But he doesn't say anything either. He gives no hint that what he asked was a rhetorical question. She hears him, but she doesn't _understand_. And from the look on his face he knows it too. And the knowledge hobbles him.

She tangles her fingers in his hair because she can't stand if he leaves now. "I'm trying to understand this." she tells him. "It's just... I need a minute to organize my thoughts. We'll find a way to fix this." When he nods she relaxes her death grip.

Getting her thoughts in order means looking away from him, means closing her eyes and looking inside herself. Every time he shifts, she unconsciously holds him tight for a few heartbeats before she recognizes the absence of a threat. The minutes pass, but when she opens her eyes, she thinks she has something he can understand.

"We're out of context, Tony. You and I. Like, in there just now? You would say something, and it would make sense to me. So I would reply. But when you would reply, it was like... It was like you were only responding to only_ half _of what I'd said. And then I would have to figure out what'd you'd meant. And I could see in your eyes that you were finding meaning in what I said...but now I wonder..." She looks up at him, opens her mouth, then closes it because she doesn't know how far he wants to take this.

"I don't think I really said what you thought I was trying to say," she finishes lamely. God, this entire afternoon has left her feeling like a total failure.

The look Tony gives her is half pain and half irony. She isn't the only one who's struggling with that same sense of failure. "Yeah...well you're not the only one who's struggling with the disconnect." Then he covers her lower torso with the shirt he was wearing. "Inside." He tells her simply. "Because you never know these days who might be watching." That has her eyes widening and her head raising skyward even before he fully pulls her to her feet.

He seats her on the couch, then does up the bare minimum of buttons on her shirt quickly and she can't help but feel that he's trying not to touch her. "How's your shoulder?" he asks as he seats himself on the ottoman in front of her. They're back in the position this mess had started in. Pepper's not sure what that means.

"Sore," she replies, still trying to figure out what's going on in his head. "But in a displaced sort of way."

He nods just a little. "It seems to be a theme lately. I think the...incident that kicked this all off damaged our equilibrium pretty severely." He doesn't sound angry, and he doesn't sound like he regrets it. He just sounds, tired…and maybe a little bit amused.

"Tony I..." She pauses. Considers her words for a moment. "Will it make me look like an idiot if I admit I have no idea what I'm doing here?"

He laughs a little bitterly. "Yes. But it you won't be alone feeling that way. I feel like I'm lost in the fucking desert again. There's plenty of light, but no solid sense of directionality."

She nods. "Okay." He adjusts the pillows behind her when she leans back and she doesn't fuss. "Here's what I was trying to say: the thought of being away from you for extended periods of time, of not being able to go to the next room and see you, touch you, makes it hard for me to breathe. Thinking you might send me to another _continent_ is almost enough to make me start hyperventilating."

He seems to take this in for a moment, and then he finally speaks himself.

"And I feel like since we did what we did last night, you've lost all respect you once had for me. I don't know how to react to you : especially when I know you're at possible risk, but don't; seem to take my concerns or my opinions on how to keep you safe very seriously."

There's another moment of silence as they both take the words in. Tony is quiet, allowing Pepper the first chance to rebut "Was that a return confession or a response to what I just said?" she asks after a moment, restraining her instinctive need to get defensive.

"It's just the only thing I know right now...the summation of my feelings." He shrugs. "I'm not trying to be accusatory. Just trying to make sure I put it all on the table. Because this constant string of miscommunications is going to eviscerate us if we let it."

She nods; she already feels gutted. For her it's second nature to take one of his hands in hers, though she has to shrug out of the sling to do it. Her right hand supports his while her left starts massaging his palm. "Touch is...important to me, Tony," says softly. "You said that I was...rushing. That I was coming on too strong. Too aggressive. But what you don't realize is how hard I've had to discipline myself _not _to touch you before now. How much the privilege means to me."

She bites her lip as she stares at his open palm. "I...god, Tony. Touching you is like coming out of a sensory deprivation chamber." Her hands are shaking a little now. "I'm trying to be good but I'm so fucking _hungry_…"

His free hand comes up and cups the back of her neck. "You don't have to say anymore Pepper. I understand. You don't have to explain it anymore than you already have."

"Are you _sure_? Because this is probably something that we should be clear on." Her voice is quiet, but her hands are trembling. She's not sure if he will understand. No other man she's been with really have, not when they have to live with it all night and day.

Tony's voice in gentle when he speaks now. And his hand on the back of her neck is actually tightening, just a little bit. "You always avoided touching before because for you it's so intense. You use touch to ground you, but it's also addictive, so you have three choices - touch everyone who's willing, don't touch anyone at all or touch a very select few as often as you can get away with it."

He draws a quiet breath, and continue carefully. "The first one doesn't suit your ethics, and the second leaves you half starved after long stretches alone. That leaves option three and I'm guessing before last night…well it's been a very, _very_ long time."

His voice is completely knowing. Too knowing, really. Like he's been there before and understand the hell that's implied. She nods. "This has all... It happened too fast, Tony. There's been no chance to adjust. If it had just stayed you and me and the shoulder, there would have been. I would have been able to set my own limits as well as read yours. But then this...this _stalker_ thing came into the picture, and it's too much. I _need_ to be close to you. It's not that I don't trust you to have my best interests at heart. It's that I don't trust myself not to fall apart without you.

"So I am getting grabby, and it's childish, I _know_ -"

He pulls her forward and kisses her firmly before she can finish the sentence. His lips are cool, a little dry even, and his breath smells of cinnamon and cooling coffee. His tongue pushes past her lips and seeks out her own, providing welcome relief.

Then he speaks. "_Never_ apologize for what you need. I don't care if you need a hug ten times a day, Virginia. Hell, I'll take you to bed again right now if that's what it's really going to take to shut down the panic when it's building. That we had sex was never my issue. It was the way you seemed to be treating me like a stranger after that I couldn't deal with…"

She settles against his chest after he pulls back from the kiss, and the way his hands start absently stroking her back makes her sigh in relief.

"You think I don't find your concerns valid anymore, don't you? You seemed to indicate that you think I'm discounting them because I assume they're based on sentiment and not overt reality." It's hard for her to say...because part of her _does_ want to think that. Because if he's overreacting out of fear of losing his lover, then the danger is overstated.

And Pepper has a feeling she still doesn't fully comprehend the threat that has him willing to separate them to keep her safe. But it would have to be a _serious_ threat.

Tony's answer makes her head raise. "I think you don't know me well enough to know the difference between me overreacting and me being reasonable yet." She pulls away, confusion and the first renewed stirrings of hurt brewing in her face. He doesn't allow her much distance though, inching forward as his knees press into hers. And then he smiles as he continues, guilessly and warmly. "Hey don't look so insulted, Pepper. It's not like I know you any better."

Then he sighs. "We're both pretty good at masks, Pepper. We needed them after all. They are habits and they can be hard to break. I've known since Afghanistan that something was changing between us...but in light of our mutual confusion, it was easier to just fall back into old roles. After all, if we looked too closely...what might happen? The attraction there was making things difficult enough as it was. If it became more than sexual..." He shrugs. "We fell back even more into the patterns of hiding."

He's right. She knows he's right. "I was thankful for the pain," she whispers. "When I watched the video from that night, I was grateful for the pain, because it gave us both a way of out of the masquerade." Then she shudders and pulls in on herself as she considers the other ramifications of his outburst that night. "If only it could have stayed between us."

"If had only been between us, Pepper, then last night would not have happened. I was..." He laughs a little, but it's not particularly funny. "I had started believing my own press I think." He takes her good hand in his and it's his time to circle and trace her palm with the tip of his finger.

"I didn't _know_, Pepper. I had no clue how far under I was till I made myself sit down and actually _watch_ the tape."

"I knew," she whispers. "About what I felt, at least. It was starting to drive me a little crazy even before you left."

The old Tony she'd loved, but she'd known was unattainable. He'd been too immature to notice her, and she'd been relieved to avoid the turmoil that could have resulted if that had changed. The Tony who'd come back from Afghanistan though, had been a different kind of challenge to confront entirely.

"I was completely blindsided when I realized how I felt, Pepper...I've never been in this situation before." He looks a little sheepish, like a boy who's admitting his first crush. Like an adolescent who's fumbling his way to first base behind a bleacher on homecoming night. "I was just starting to get my head around the idea...and then we had to start pushing the boundaries."

Pepper's not sure what to think about that. "This is sounding like the more serious version of what you were saying this morning," she says carefully, trying not to sound judgmental. "Are you basically saying we started sleeping together too soon?"

"It sounds like I'm on _crack_," is what he admits a little ruefully. "I mean...me... wanting less of anything? Seriously? " He shrugs a little. "But this thing between us...it's _different_. You're not the woman I'm fucking for the weekend and then never seeing again. We're...we're actually _lovers_..." He actually sounds the word out, and doesn't look all that satisfied with it when it's left his mouth.

"And I'm not used to having one of those. I'm not sure how to handle it. I just think that maybe it deserves something more than my usual approach. I don't want to stop the sex, understand, I just want to spend an equal or greater part of our time together…well… _dating_…"

He's...serious. Pepper realizes it with a shock. He is absolutely, one hundred percent serious. Despite the cover of humor he uses, Tony Stark wishes he'd had some token of affection to offer her besides his body.

And she hates it. She fights against it. But she loves him and that side of her wells up and throttles her selfish need to always be as close to him as possible. Preferably without clothes.

"Okay," she murmurs, a little freaked out at herself. "Okay. If you need...time...to be with me but not _be_ with me..." She can't believe she's offering this, because it's going to test her self control in ways that was going to make the last months look like child's play. "Then let's try it."

The smile he gives her doesn't completely settle her hormones, but it does create a different kind of warmth in her chest.

"I want you to go to Europe," he informs her candidly "Even knowing how much you hate the idea, some part of me is screaming that it's the better answer…"

She feels her throat tighten and she starts shaking her head – not in argument but in instinctive denial – but he keeps on talking. "All that said, you're not the only one capable of battling you instincts. This fucker who's sending stuff scares the shit out of me. But if you _need _to stay then I have to let you. Because I understand the panic. It's the same way I feel every time I think of you near a large group of people.

"So we compromise...I give you Happy. You start carrying a Tazer and you take no unnecessary chances. And I...I will try to chill out and let this thing die down on it's own. Just don't..." He clears his throat. "Don't ever try and tell me I can't go with you again. Because essentially that feels like you're supergluing my hands and duct-taping my arms behind my back."

"Okay," she promises. "Okay." It's not hard for her to accept his concerns when he's proved that he's taken hers into concern and made his decision with _her_ in mind, not just her physical safety.

The windows in the room are adjusting to the light from the setting sun coming in, becoming tinted to protect their eyes. Pepper is distracted by them for a moment before she turns to Tony. "Satellite," she tells him, aware that she's going off on a completely unrelated topic. "We can do the press conference via satellite. Real time. We make our statements, maybe take a few questions, but we're never actually in the room with anyone."

"The press will hate it," is his honest reply.

"Doesn't matter. They're already getting more than deserve. We're not giving this because we want to. And this is the option that's best for you. And frankly, best for me as well."

Tony nods and spreads his arms. "If you can get Mildred to agree, I can't think of any objections. Though the other option is to actually just do a couple one on one interviews at the mansion with some individual reporters."

Pepper thinks a moment, then frowns just a little. "I don't think that will work to calm the raving masses as much as a press conference will. Remember, I've been working for you for a few years now. I have a slight understanding how exclusivity affects the media. But it's an option down the road. It will certainly help the damage control." She sighs. "You're going to be recovering from this for _years_."

"A press conference allows more people access, but is far less personal. At least in an interview the press feels empowered because they get to ask some questions. And I know that, Pepper. I've known that longer than you have."

Tony doesn't look sheepish, or particularly apologetic. Despite his attitude earlier in the day, he doesn't even look particularly resigned. As she watches him, it occurs to Pepper that the man has spent most if not all his life in front of one camera or another.

"When was the first time you had to deal with the Paparazzi?" She asks the question a little softly.

He shrugs. "I completed some kind of test my dad insisted I take back when I was still a kid. Got the highest score ever made. I suppose that in itself wouldn't have made much of an impact, except the media found out that at the time I had barely turned five."

Her laughter is light because that is just so perfectly Tony. The recognition helps release something inside her so that she's able to step back from their situation for the first time in days and concentrate on what needs to be done. "Okay, Stark. You and me, right now. We need a battle plan. Here's what I think we should do - remote press conference with as many outlets as possible. Then a week or two later a series of one on one interviews with a couple of the major newspapers, a couple of magazines - though you're _not_ sitting down with Vanity Fair - and then, since I'm sure you've gotten the offers, one or two television interviews."

"What's wrong with Vanity Fair?" Tony manages to look wounded, but there's a distinct twinkle somewhere in the depth of his eyes. "They always do really good cover shots, Pepper. Play our cards right and you could get a large one to hang in your bedroom."

"You know why," is her reply as she slaps her hand against his belly. As he jolts she pretends she didn't notice. "Though not to bother you with small details...but from what direction are we tackling this anyway? I mean...are we going to try to hide...?"

His face grows sober. "That's up to you, Potts. You're the one whose neck is going to end up on the line. Though technically it already _is_, so I guess the warning is a little late in coming." His jaw clenches at the admission, and something darks fills his eyes. When he speaks next it's to himself, more than to her in specific. "Fifteen plus years...it worked for awhile at least. Only three stalkers. And only one of those that required the involvement of the police."

Pepper presses her lips to the bare shoulder beneath her cheek and sighs. "I can't imagine anyone being fooled if we deny any involvement. And if we ignore the matter, we're just going to be hounded everywhere we go."

He nods. "I vote for the truth if we're going that route. We're long time friends and co-workers, who have just discovered a deeper connection. Other than that though, no specifics. Because it's none of their damn business." His arms come up to wrap around her shoulders, one hand stroking lightly along the back of her neck.

"Okay." She smiles softly and rests her cheek on his shoulder again. "What're my chances of getting a massage?" she asks lightly, hoping he won't read too much into it other than her shoulder aches...and she loves even the thought of his hands on her.

He grins and rests his chin atop her head. "I think that can be arranged. After we both eat some dinner." He frowns a little as he pulls back. "I should check your shoulder anyway. It needs proper stretching and it's had quite a few stressful overextensions since your appointment yesterday."

She winces. "Damn. I can't believe I did that to my laptop. Though, I suppose I don't have to worry about taking any work home with me." Then she relaxes again, shakes her head in bemusement. "It's a good thing I'm salaried. I don't think you could afford me if you had to deal with all the overtime I'm going to accrue."

"What overtime do you think you're going to be getting?" Tony asks with one raised eyebrow. "You're still limited to half days."

"Yeah, but keeping up with you was a full time job when I was theoretically only spending eight hours a day in your company. You may have to slow down just to give me a fair chance of keeping up, Mr. Stark."

Tony laughs at this. "I think we can compromise. You give me your word you'll pull no more that four hours a day, and I'll keep things down to a minimum. Besides, everybody knows that you're hurt and that you run my whole schedule, so they'll probably just think I'm off staring at a wall somewhere without you to ride my ass to get me to go to all the usual meetings."

She blinks at him, then chews softly on her bottom lip. "Okay, Tony. If you want me to behave myself, no making those kinds of comments." It takes more discipline than it should to keep her eyes from wandering over his face.

He blushes...actually _blushes_. "That was not what I meant." There is something to be said for the power of suggestion, however, and neither of them miss the subtle change in his breathing. Pepper finds herself smiling a little softly. "Are you sure we can't rain check food until later? Because last I checked, we're 0-1 in favor of me."

He resists when she presses into him, but he doesn't push her away. Her smile grows, though it doesn't become predatory. It's more like the smile of a woman who's just been surprised by something she's wanted for a long time; happiness, anticipation, pleasure... When her tongue darts out to wet her lips, his eyes lock on to the soft sheen left behind.

"I've been thinking about 'slow,' Anthony." Her hand gently rubs back and forth along his ribs. I think it's a concept you need to help me explore further."

He groans. "Why do I get the feeling that all our evenings 'out' are going to wind up starting in the bedroom?"

"Are you _complaining_?" she asks with a smirk.

"No...I'm beginning to consider it a challenge. A game that in the end, I suspect both of us will get to win."

This time when she presses against him he half reclines against the sofa. Pepper takes the invitation and kneels between his sprawled legs. She doesn't kiss him. Not yet. But she skims her fingertips along the outline of his lips, smiles when her breathing speeds up in reaction to his. "Have I mentioned how much I like the way you taste?"

He shudders a little. "Pepper this is a dangerous conversation. And you really do need to eat." He pauses, then groans. "And I was referring to food. Just to be perfectly clear."

"Maybe _you_ should feed me then so I can keep my hands free for other purposes." She can't help herself; she lowers her head until the tip of her nose brushes against his neck. His scent is literally intoxicating, and she can't get enough of it.

He shudders again, then pushes back gently. "Okay...to the kitchen. And now. Because you are a _menace_ to my sanity." And then he's bending forward, albeit carefully, until he can impact her belly with his shoulder.


	6. Chapter 6

Before Pepper can protest or even blink she's being carried out of the room.

Instinctively she tries to stabilize herself, then goes limp as the effort makes her shoulder scream. The pain is a little bit of a wakeup call, but not enough to make her forget her goal entirely. "Okay, if you wanted to make me stop thinking about sex, this was the wrong view to present me with," she tells him as she wraps her arm around his waist. Then in a tiny bit of punishment, she digs her chin into his shoulder blade.

Tony's response is a sharp smack to her ass, and then he leaves the hand where it lands to add a little extra stabilization.

"Get your brain out of the gutter, Potts. The only thing you're getting in the next half an hour is reheated spaghetti. I don't know about you, but I've got plans this evening, and all of them are going to require a large influx of protein."

She scrapes her nails against his belly. "Really," she continues without regard to his warning...either of them. "I should send a thank you note to your tailor, because these pants? Wow. Though naked would definitely improve the view."

His voice is bemused. "Are you _that_ into spanking, Pepper? Because I'm more than willing. but honestly all you have to do is _ask,_ you don't have to continually _bait_ me. You'll love the trunk that's somewhere in my basement, I'm guessing, if I ever get bored with just normally tormenting you."

His hand is still cupping her bottom but his fingers are kind of...wandering. "Only if I get to Dom the next time." She wonders if he thinks she might be intimidated by any of this. Or is he's just pushing various buttons until he discovers the specifics of what turns her on. "Tony, I will take you any and all ways that I can get you. It's all good in my opinion. Of course I prefer being on top, but that's in general, and not just for more serious 'play.'"

He snorts. "Why do I think we're going to end up starting most nights by flipping a coin? Not that you'd be a reasonable sub most of the time even if you _were _the one flat on your back." He rolls his eyes. "I have a feeling I'm going to have to figure out what shuts off your brain quickly just in self defense…."

"You know you hired me to keep you on your toes," she teases. When he sets her down in the kitchen she doesn't have to fake the way she sways on her feet as all her blood rushes from her head.

He walks over to the refrigerator, opens the door, starts piling leftover out on the counter. "For the record, by the way, you amuse the hell out of me."

"How so?" Her tone is a little less amorous and a little more sharp. It is like he's given her a little jolt, and shaken her free of her flirtations. When she speaks it's with an instinctive defensiveness she really hopes he doesn't hear.

He closes the refrigerator door and goes to get plates. "Pick what you want...I'll take whatever's left." Pepper starts pulling of Tupperware lids and find half a quiche that looks edible before he continues. "It's not an insult, Pepper...so don't get your dander up." Tony comes back with plates, cups and forks. He accepts the unclaimed meatloaf with what looks like glee.

"Still...just look at it from my perspective. _I'm_ the one who is supposed to be hell on wheels. And look at us now...I'm the responsible one, and you're the one who's eying me like I'm dinner." He pops his food in the microwave, and turns to lean on the counter as he continues. "I'm not complaining...hell, I _love_ it. Even still, I'm guessing that it's going to be while before I stop laughing at the sheer _irony_."

"Then you're not...unhappy." She takes the fork he offers, ignores the plate, and starts picking at the quiche right out of it's container. She's more relieved than she cares to admit, for reasons she'd really prefer to not to contemplate at the moment..

He narrows his eyes. "Why in hell would I be?" He studies her a moment. "Why do I now get a feeling from that assumption that I'm about to want to _kill_ of some your former boyfriends?"

She shrugs, "You can't kill anyone for broaching the same subject you did when you woke me up," she informs him, though she does stop picking at her food and start actually eating. "You have no idea how hard it's been to keep this part of my personality mostly tamped down so it doesn't upset or scare anybody. It's just…it's _always_ been an issue, Tony…with the traditionalists I've dated _especially_."

Tony looks at her hard, as if he's seeing her for the first time. Then he sighs and puts down his fork. "You know for the record, our communication sucks, because if I am reading you right now, then you think that you've got something to be ashamed of..."

She winces. "It's kinda hard to mistake 'you're pushing so hard it's kinda creeping me out' for anything but disapproval…and by the way, I think that was the direct quote."

Tony sighs a little, and then he abandons his food to the microwave. He pulls out a chair and sits down in, patting his thigh a little as he meets her eyes. "Pepper, come here." He commands her softly, in a tone she is going to have to change from 'Tony in boss mode' to simply 'intractable Tony."

She gets up and joins him, not so much because he ordered as because she can't resist the look on his face. Five seconds later, he has her straddling his lap, while he digs strong muscular hands into her lower back. "Pepper...what happened to your computer last night? I mean yes I know you said you threw it, but you never said _why_ exactly. I would really like to know."

Pepper's not sure what her computer has to do with anything, but she answers. "I lost control. Jarvis...he showed me everything about that night, Tony. _Everything._ From the moment Stane came in until the moment he left. And I..." She closes her eyes and rests her forehead against his. "I got so _angry,_" she whispers. "I didn't mean to do it, but I had to do something." Her computer had been the nearest non-protesting victim.

Tony curses a little under his breath. "I should have had Jarvis delete the damn footage from the mainframe." Pepper glares at this in protest, but he holds up a hand in apology. "It's just...I get the urge completely. You have to remember that less than a week ago I threw a man across the room. When it happened, I completely punched the mental time clock, so I know what kind of stuff can happen. For both our sakes, though we need to be honest with each other about whether you did the exactly same thing when you finally agreed to sleep with me."

Her eyes widen in shock, and then narrow. "Something's going to get punched," she mutters under her breath. Then in a clearer tone she says, "Jarvis also showed me about a five minute slideshow of pictures of us from here in the house, Tony. Think he somehow conned me into loving you, too?"

He groans. "Pepper I'm not denying your feelings. I'm just questioning the way and the time that you chose to _act _on them." He reaches up on hand to rub his forehead. "You told me yourself that you'd loved me awhile. But you have never acted on it short of a almost kiss on the roof and one dance during which you could scarcely make eye contact..."

He shrugs. "Now look at it from my perspective...you were injured. You were possibly high on drugs...all of which, if I'd been a decent sort of person, would have meant I should have never gotten into that bed with you in the first place." He leans over to gently kiss her forehead. "I'm not saying we wouldn't have gotten here, we would have _eventually_. But I do have to wonder, if you'd been totally uninjured and I'd done the same, would you have encouraged me to jump you, or would we have had to talk it through?"

He looks at her sternly, at the same time a he rubs circles on her back. "_That's_ what scares the crap out of me, Pepper. Not that you're aggressive if that's your nature…but because I didn't know if it actually was. I'm scared to death that you're pushing so hard because you don't want to give yourself time to look at what you're doing. And if the result of that is that someday you wake up and realize you regret it all…well can you really blame me for wanting to make sure you're actually thinking things through?"

He loves her, he loves her, he loves her. Pepper has to let that soak in and sooth the rough edges of her temper. It's frayed by the anxiety of possible separation still, she knows that. But Tony is just being honest with her. He loves her, wants to make sure she loves him instead of allowing her to leap before she looks.

And she hadn't really, last night. But not for the reasons he thinks.

"I love you," she says. "I love you, and I wanted to be with you." 'Don't ask, don't ask...'

He looks at her then. And he looks at her hard. "Whatever it is you're trying to avoid saying, Pepper, you just better spit it out. Because I love you too, but if we're lying or trying to con ourselves or each other this will inevitably backfire on us."

She swallows hard. "I love you, and I knew you love me, and you needed me. And I wanted to be with you. And so I said yes."

"That's all there is to it?" His voice is deceptively calm. But she realizes in that moment that he reads her very well, and he will know if she's lying.

"Yes. No. Yes." Pepper huffs and closes her eyes. "You needed me. And yes, I responded to that. But I heard the warning you gave me, I understood the consequence of my actions. And later when you needed me to slow down, I didn't exactly comply. So it wasn't as if it was all about you. And I meant that in a non-dysfunctional way because of course some of it was about you."

He put a hand to her mouth. "Were you thinking about your needs, or was it mine that you used to make the final call."

She finds she can't answer. Or more precisely she knows she doesn't want to.

He chews his lips. "Well, I'll tell you one thing – you scare the hell out of me. And it has nothing to do with you being overly aggressive." He rubs her back, hoping it will take the sting out. "Pepper, if you won't acknowledge your own limits then how in heck am I supposed to believe any of this I remotely healthy? I'll tell you this right now, I _will not_ 'play' hard core with you under these circumstances, because how in hell can you be trusted to use a safe word when you don't acknowledge your own good. This tendency you have to ignore your own physical and emotional limits is a recipe for _catastrophe_."

It all cuts too close, and she finds herself retreating. When she speaks again she's frustrated, and she doesn't bother to hide it. "You needed me. What is so wrong with that?" she asks. "It's not like I slept with you against my better judgment. In fact, I slept with you against _your_ better judgment."

She's not disputing anything he just said - mainly because that's an issue for down the road right now considering her shoulder - but she does feel as if he's...disappointed in her and she almost can't stand it.

Tony takes her face in his hands. "What's wrong is that you endangered the woman I'm in love with in order to do it. And you don't seem to get why that pisses me off. Tell me something Pepper, if I did the same in reverse, how would you feel about it?"

"Let me up," she says. His hands tighten around her and she's not about to fight him physically. "I need space to think. That's all." After a pause, his arms loosen and she gets up. She retrieves her meal and slowly eats while she thinks.

Fine. Assume she _had_ been in his place last night. Assume that when he'd come into her office to find her on the floor, she'd thrown herself at him. Assume she'd kissed him, drawn close to him while still controlled by the video Jarvis had shown her. He would have kissed her and held her and listened to her agonized rambling, and then...

She tries to force him to make love to her while she's still distraught and he has some measure of calm. What had happened this afternoon didn't count because they'd both been out of control. But if he had still maintained some control while she hadn't...if her body had been begging for him while her mouth had been telling him no...

No matter how hard she tries to force it, she can't get him to have sex with her while she's in that state. All she can get is his arms around her as he tries to calm her down.

Was it because he's a man, and a good one at that? Was it the image she held of him as someone who had never taken serious advantage of her? (What small advantages he took as her boss didn't count.) Was it because at the end of the day she'd always had to trust him to toe the boundaries she's set because he was bigger and stronger and if she didn't trust him she might fear him?

Or was it just because she _knew_ he'd never do it.

She's finished her quiche, Pepper notices as she slips out of her musings. It should amuse her. It doesn't. She just feels tired when she raises her eyes to Tony's. There's nothing to say so there's no point in trying.

"I. love. You," he says, slowly and succinctly. "But we won't do ourselves any good if we pretend anything."

He draws a deep breath. "I don't care that you're a fighter, Pepper. I like you that way. Granted I would prefer our bedroom not be a constant battle ground, but I'm more than willing to do at minimum a bi-weekly tussle, since it seems to trip both our wires. But I can only do it if I _know_ that's what you want and need. I won't participate if you're only using it as a way to hide from yourself, or worse yet, to hide from me."

"Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly, but I hid nothing from you, Tony. Not even my greed." She gets up from the table and takes her dirty dishes to the sink. "I should have listened when you told me no. Because even in the safety of my own head I can't get you to hypothetically take that kind of advantage of me."

He grimaces. "Yes well you hadn't watched the person you loved dislocate their shoulder. And you certainly hadn't seen yourself go completely insane as a result." He shrugs his shoulders. "I wasn't going to let it go. I would have done something eventually...I would have had to. But I had my limits, Pepper. And even if you may not feel the need to offer forgiveness, I still wonder if I should be asking for it anyway."

"You're not the one who pressed too far, Tony." Her whisper is soft. "It's just another example of me going too far too fast. Maybe we ought to re-examine that Europe option just to give me time to chill out." She probably deserves it as a form of self-punishment.

"Like hell." He tells her and then he's up and holding her close before she can blink.

She lets him hold her because it's what she wants, and it's what she wants, and it assuages some of her guilt. Perhaps they hadn't come together ideally, but they were together. And that was what remained at the end. "I'm sorry I screwed it up," she says, "but I'm not sorry it happened."

His hands drop from her back to cup the globes of her bottom. "The feeling is mutual. This isn't us saying it shouldn't have happened, it's us saying it shouldn't have happened that way. It's saying we're both going to _change_. I wasn't lying when I said this was it for me...it still is, and I believe we'll sort it out."

Between them his erection springs to life and he growls a little in frustration. "Meatloaf or you...meat loaf or...ah fuck the eating. I'm done."

Pepper groans and shudders as his lips swoop down on hers, but she isn't about to start arguing. She's sorry, and she's desperate, and she's in love, and she wants to be with Tony without all this confusion between them. She wants no arguments between them and an absence of fear. She wants just the two of them.

"So...you agreed to a backrub, if I remember earlier," she mutters against his skin.

Tony pulls away from her lips to nibble on her right ear. The act causes her to shiver convulsively. "Well then let's head upstairs." And once again he's lifting her off of her feet, this time in a cradled position. There's no discussion of where they're going to end up. He goes straight toward his bedroom.

"This position is infinitely preferable to the last," she informs him as her hands slowly explore his skin. "And though I can't see your ass anymore..." She slides her hand into his back pocket, "It has a distinct set of advantages..."

He fumbles just slightly. "I said I wouldn't let you 'play,' Virginia. That in no way affects my earlier positions on spanking."

"Whatever you say, Anthony." She squeezes a little and then moves her hand back up to a safer position on his back. They both shiver a little, though she suspects that she manages to hide it better.

"You do realize someday I'm going to call that bluff." His voice is low and rumbly, rather like a big cat's as he approaches his bedroom doorway.

"What bluff?" She strokes her hand up and down his spine, wondering if she can get him to use that voice again.

He growls low in his throat, as they cross the threshold. In less time than it takes for her to blink, he's sitting on the edge of the bed, with her draped over his lap and her skirt pulled up as his hand firmly massages her bottom. "If your shoulder weren't too weak to provide proper support," he says mournfully. "You're soaking wet at just the _idea_…we _will_ revisit the subject again."

That doesn't keep him from running a teasing finger down the curve of her butt and then using two insistent fingers to push her folds open. "Oh course there are other ways to deliver punishment," he whispers. "And some of them you may regret a hell of a lot worse than spanking once I'm done with you." His voice is all rumble and promise as he finds her entrance and experimentally pushes a finger in. "Let me know if your shoulder starts to hurt," he orders as his other hand finds her clit.

She squeaks. Not purposefully of course, but she's more than a little breathless and a hell of a lot aroused, and it's the best she can do. Or it's the best she can do until he starts using those skilled fingers of his with full attention to detail. Then she's gasping and moaning, almost loud enough to drown out his running commentary of exactly what she feels like and what it's doing to him and what he plans to do to her as a result.

This is like earlier, but nothing like it at all. His fingers know her intimately and he drives her to the crest only to back off right before she can reach it. And he does it over and over until she can hear the strain in his voice and feel the trembling in his legs.

The fact that she's about ready to scream in frustrated need has _nothing_ to do with her decision to call a truce. "Tony, please...please..." She scarcely recognizes her own voice. For the first time in her life she realizes that someone who likes how much she grounds herself in touch might actually be even more dangerous than somebody who _doesn't._

"Not yet." Tony growls. "I'm not even halfway through with you." She wonders if either of them are going to be able to walk once they're finished with this.

"No. Now." She tries to make it an order. He ignores her of course. He continues his 'punishment' until she's limp and trembling and moaning irregularly between her shallow pants. "Ready to cry quits yet?" he asks in that same rumble. The moan she gives in answer is the best reply that she can offer.

A moment latter she's screaming his name. He lets her go, finally, with a feather soft brush to her clit.

"I love you," he whispers as the world fades to black. And she totally believes him.

When it's over, her whole body is throbbing, and she's lying on her back on the bed with his hand resting full on her belly. His head is propped up on his hand as he lays there watching her, and the look on his face is inexpressibly tender.

"You were saying something about bluffing?" There is laughter in his voice. She just blinks at him, trying to make sense of what he just said. And when his words click, she just smiles a little ruefully.

"You caught me," she says. Then she pulls him down for a kiss.

Her kisses are shallow and short because she hasn't quite yet caught her breath, but she figure's she'll have time for that later. So she wraps her right arm around his shoulders to keep him close and uses to left to palm the erection pressing against her thigh. His hips jerk. "Pepper," he warns in a breathy whisper. "I only get one shot at this. Don't be in too big a hurry."

"Oh...I'm not in a hurry, Tony. In fact, I'm in considerably less than a hurry," she promises as she slowly slides her hand up so that she barely has him covered. "Now, don't move, because you're supporting my bad arm."

Her skin barely makes any contact, but it's way more than enough. He's squeezing his eyes shut and muttering quadratic equations under his breath.

She grins in delight and quickly unfastens his pants. While her hand slips inside her feet awkwardly work on sliding them down his legs.

"That's it," she reassures him in a too-sweet tone. "You just keep yourself right there..." This revenge of hers is sweet but does nothing to calm her breathing down. In fact, they're pretty much breathing in tandem as she slowly works the tips of her fingers up and down his arousal. He moans her name and buries his face in her neck, which she takes as a sign to use a bit more pressure.

The pressure in her grip steadily increases until his head kicks back and she removes her hand quickly, bracing his hip so that he remains stationary above her. When she glances up at his face, he's staring down at her. His eyes are black and his face stony with passion...and she grins.

"Not yet," she whispers as she trails kisses over his face. "You can manage a little patience, can't you? I mean, slow was _your_ idea."

Tony grimaces, and then he whimpers. "I've been like this on and off sixteen _hours, _Pepper." His hips jerk, involuntarily. "You've got maybe two minutes at most. You can keep on doing what you're doing or you can spend the time astride me."

"It's only what you deserve after leaving the bed so early," she chides, but she takes her hand away and wraps it around the back of his neck...tugs a little on the ends of his hair. She hadn't missed his little clues the night before that he liked having her hand there.

"Touch me, Tony. Touch the rest of me. I want to feel you everywhere."

He rolls them then, till he's on the bottom. Grins up at her when he does, with a smug little grin. "Well you said you wanted me to touch. This is the best way to keep my hands free." And then his hands are everywhere, and his lips are wherever he can reach, and just like that she's ready again and she hopes he appreciates it because she knows enough about herself to know that after awhile her responses will become much more reasonable and less out of control.

But for now she doesn't fight it because she wants him inside of her. She holds him steady as she slowly sinks down on him. Her body trembles as it accepts his and her nails bite into his shoulder but he doesn't seem to mind. When she's taken all of him she kneels there, panting a little, battling her urge to give into frantic motion. What was it he'd said? If neither of them was going anywhere, what was the rush?

Beneath her Tony moans "Virginia?" She raises an eyebrow at his parallel use of her full name. His eyes open and his teeth are so tightly clenched they look like they're going to crack. "What I said about taking it slow? I officially take it all back."

"This time," she says with an evil quirk of her lips. "But only because you asked so nicely." Still...she starts out slow, teases him with two slow thrusts before her own nature wins out and she starts moving faster. Her left arm braces her, her right hand lays bonelessly against his chest half covering his heart, half covering his reactor. The way the light outlines her hand mesmerizes her.

It takes maybe eleven thrusts total, and then he's coming and his hips are bucking so hard it nearly throws her off balance.

When he's finished shaking, she rolls off his chest to lie beside him. He's gazing up at the ceiling and trying to recover his breath. "You okay?" he asks her softly, one hand managing to shift just enough to enfold her own.

"Mmmm...I am plotting my eventual and much longer revenge. Does that answer your question, Anthony Stark?"

He tilts his head in her general direction. "Just remember...per our agreement I get a dinner and a movie at the very least before we do this again."

The warning makes her snort at the same time it makes her laugh. Only Tony Stark would screw her nearly blind in the pursuit of the perfect post-coital date. "Unless you're counting a very early breakfast and the morning news as part of the deal, I'd watch myself, Stark." She smiles. "Besides, eventually I'm going to get that massage you offered and we'll see if you can put your money where your mouth is when I'm topless."

He rolls his eyes. "I'm going to sleep. And any attempt to bend the rules will result in proper punishment. Don't make me find even eviler methods, because I'm really creative…"

Then he squeezes her hand again. "Love you, Potts." And his eyes fall closed in involuntary sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Pepper wakes up with Tony wrapped around her, and it is...nice. She's in pain of course, and she can _feel_ the heat radiating off her skin – why hasn't she ever considered that Tony's little "demonstration" on the balcony might have lasting repercussions? But there's something calming about waking up beside him, even if she does have minor sunburn.

So for a little while she lingers, enjoying the proximity of his relaxed body, and the touch of his skin on hers, and more than a few lazy daydreams of what she's going to do to him when she has two fully-functioning arms...

After so many years, Pepper's pretty sure she knows just how to make Tony _beg_.

And then she has to get out of bed because if she doesn't, she's going to wake him up in a most inappropriate manner. If she calls for takeout now then they can still work in a late dinner and a movie and then hopefully he won't object to how she wakes him up in the morning.

Because she so totally _owes_ him for the lap thing. Or perhaps he owes _her_ a portion of that same trust and vulnerability.

Tit for tat is basically how they are going to make this work.

And so she climbs out of the bed and into the shower. It's already dusk, but that's hardly late at all. Pepper finds her pain meds and checks the instructions on the label and debates... She really should wait at least another hour before taking more, if not two or three. 'Okay. That's fine.' She settles for aloe and Tylenol. She can wait - especially if she can get that massage that Tony promised her. However, she doesn't want to wake him up just yet. So she slips into his robe because it's the easiest thing for her to put on herself, and she leaves the bedroom to go track down her phone.

She orders pizza with a side of salad from Tony's favorite local place. They tell her there's a rush and it will be at least another sixty minutes. Then she dials Hank's number to let him know about the change in plans for the press conference. By doing a remote interview, they can essentially do an open call for all interested media and just accept questions before hand as a matter of screening.

And anyone who forgets their manners will be out of the range of Tony's fists. Not to mention she'll bounce them permanently off the list of people allowed in the Stark Industries press room.

The phone at the office rings several times before it's picked up. The voice at the other end is amused if a little aggrieved "Hank here...yes Elizabeth, I'm almost done here. I should be leaving for home in another thirty minutes. Shall I stop and get us two slices of peach pie on the way?"

Pepper blinks and looks at the clock, finally realizing she's called Stark Industries PR department well after 8 pm. "Hank, it's Pepper Potts. Why aren't you home already?" Come to think of it peach pie sounded really, _really_ good.

Her sweet tooth is coming back, which she knows could be unfortunate for her waist if she doesn't watch herself.

There's a pause on the other end of the line, and then a chuckle. "Sorry about that Pepper, I'm afraid this is the 3rd call in as many hours. As for why I'm here - well since your employer decided to go all 'John Wayne' somebody has to deal with the fawning hordes for him." Hank's reply could have been sarcastic, but it just ended up sounding amused. "Don't worry," the older man was quick to reassure her in a tired southern drawl, "I've still got plenty of credit stored up with my wife after what I managed to pull off for her recent birthday. Now how can help you?"

"We owe you, Hank. You and everyone else. And I hope that what I have to say makes your job easier. Tony and I have an idea that we think may please everyone."

"Well then, let's hear it." Hank's tone is jovial. And once again Pepper's wondering why she doesn't know this man better. His instant mix of down home charm and flexible mind are assets she is coming to realize have probably made his climb up the corporate ladder more of a stealth attack than anything else.

"It's simple really - a compromise. After you guys left, Tony and I had a talk. He is just really, really… uncomfortable…with the thought of a live press conference, so we've decided to do a remote one." Pepper is proud of the way she hasn't actually lied. "We'll have the press meet at Stark Industries, but we'll be here at the house. So you can throw open the guest list and start accepting questions. We'll have to screen them at least, but that way Tony can be there on the side, and more importantly since there'll be no direct threats we won't have to worry about me being in danger or him decking anyone."

There's a pause at the other end as Hank takes in this new idea. "God Lord, why didn't Mildred and I come up with that idea ourselves? It's absolutely brilliant. I'll put out the notices tomorrow, we'll give them twenty four hours to try and formulate their questions."

"We didn't think of it because there was a live bomb in the room we were all trying to avoid detonating." What they should have done was at least hear him out. She is going to have to be careful about that especially, in the upcoming weeks. Pepper smiles and shakes her head. "I'm going to let you guys decide which questions we take, but there's something you need to know about the angle that Tony and I have decided to take in regards to this... situation."

"So you're going to go public with the real state of your relationship, then?" The question is asked with a mischievous chuckle. "Well that will make things interesting. Messier at the beginning but far less convoluted to try and clean up in the long run."

Pepper chuckles as she curls into the cushions of the couch. "I promise we'll handle it more gracefully than we did this afternoon." That whole fiasco with her asking about her prescriptions is still burned into her brain. "We _hope_ that by admitting at least that we're gong to start dating that we can get the press to back off a little."

"They probably will, if you're frank about the whole things. The way I see it, the press needs a bone, and most people out there would actually prefer a good love story to something more sordid." The man pauses a moment as if considering how to best speak his mind. "And believe it or not, Mr. Stark's actions will probably gain him some _credit_ with a lot of the public once they know for sure what's been driving him."

Hank is probably right, as strange as Pepper finds it, there are simply some things she will never understand about this supposedly 'modern' society. "Will it be enough though, to make most of the vultures back off...?"

Hank sighs. "That's harder to tell...it depends on what kind of response the first conference brings. If we can make it clear you two are not living out some kind of soap opera, then you'll likely just have to deal with what most celebrity couples do."

_Just._ Pepper tries not to think about that, about the likelihood that she's going to start being recognized when she goes out, that she's going to become a person of public interest. It's just about enough to make her want to ask Tony to move somewhere where there's no paparazzi. Like somewhere in Oregon, or Seattle. All that rain had to make for dismal photography conditions.

It's an effort to concentrate on the situation and not its repercussions. "Tony and I are both aware that this is only the first wave of media releases we're going to have to do. Still, I wish we could sue the hell out of anyone who publishes unauthorized photos."

"Don't we all, though unfortunately that's unlikely to drive the price down, quite the opposite in fact."

And that was the truth, as much as Pepper hated it, it was perhaps the most difficult thing about creating a relationship. "So what do we do, Hank? In your experience where do we best draw the line?"

There's a pause on the other end of the line, as the other man considers. "My honest suggestion is that you do the opposite of retreat...you lead the charge. Allow a few journalists that want to do articles come in and take decent photos. Reward the press that behaves." The man's voice in frank though a little apologetic, "We can also see about getting a restraining order around the building you live in when you return there to keep the press a way. Though to be honest, that will only really work if you're sure none of your _neighbors_ will see this as a quick way to make some money off the gossip rags _themselves_."

Pepper just shakes her head in disbelief as another thing to worry about is effortlessly added to her pile. "Don't waste time on that. Tony was against me moving back into my place when all we had to worry about was the dislocated shoulder. If you're going to set up a restraining order, please do it around my physical therapist's."

"Has there been any additional word as to the identity of your stalker yet? I know that Mr. Stark was actually speculating it was someone in the press corp. And I'm sorry but I'm afraid we _can't_ set up a restraining order around a public building. All we can do is request injunctions be filed to keep people from following you too closely, and make sure you have a body guard like Mr. Stark has already started arranging for."

Well crap. She's going to have to call and see if the office she's going to is privately owned or arrange for sessions here. Because Tony isn't going to want her to go anywhere where there's a chance her shoulder might be further irritated. He might allow it, but it would bother him a lot, and she's afraid to find out just when he'd crack again under too much strain.

"I think Tony's still waiting to hear back from security, and honestly I haven't pushed for information. Not only does it scare the hell out of me if I think about it, but until about four hours ago, a European 'vacation' was still on the table." Under the circumstances they're both walking on eggshells, and she doesn't want anything that's currently stable to shatter or crack.

"Hard to blame a man for wanting to guard something precious." There it is in Hank's voice again; an almost insidious sense of _approval_ she definitely doesn't want Tony hearing too much of.

"This is as much about his well being as it is about mine. After all this stalker s fixated on him, she only wants to kill me." She wonders why no one else seems to remember that, why Tony himself seems to be blind to the fact.

She can almost see Hank shrugging on the other end of the line. "Yes, well you can try and change some things in a man, I suppose. But some things about him may be root deep, so unless you don't really love him, you just have to learn how to let things be."

"What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose," Pepper says dryly. "Well, I'm going to let you go so _you_ can go home. Whatever you have left to do can be taken care of tomorrow."

"As I said I've got another twenty minutes work." Hank's voice is endearingly stubborn.

"You look like you're ready to strangle someone." Comes an amused voice from behind her. She turns to see Tony leaning against the doorframe. He cracks a yawn and stretches, in a way she knows is both unfair and distracting. Then he quirks his eyebrow. "Geese and ganders, Pepper? Since when does your job involve discussing poultry?"

'Since I started working with a bunch of Turkeys.' "Call me tomorrow afternoon to let me know how the plans are coming. It was nice talking to you, Hank." Pepper hangs up the phone and gives Tony a _look_ that is half amusement and half exasperation.

"What _is it _about men and protecting women? Not that I mind your protective instincts. But women have them too, you know. We don't like seeing our men hurt."

Tony only looks more amused. "At the risk of getting _smacked_ Potts, it's just a guy thing. Unless you have a penis, you just won't understand."

"How is it not the same?" Pepper asks, exasperated. "I love you just as much as you love me. I even blew you up."

Okay that was a poor analogy, judging by Tony's poorly concealed snicker.

"It's not a matter of who loves who more, Pepper." Tony comes to sit beside her, and his hand slips under the collar of her robe to massage her neck. "Call it whatever you will. Testosterone, hell even sociology...whatever makes it easier to swallow." He frowns a leans a little closer to her neck. "Potts, you need aloe. You've got the beginnings of a serious sunburn."

Pepper snorts at that. "And who's to blame for that? Scientifically speaking, the female of most species are the more dangerous. Or does the phrase 'Mother Bear' mean nothing to you at all?"

"Not the same," Tony reassures her. "What did Hank have to say? And do you need any help putting on more aloe?"

They are _so_ not done with this topic, but Pepper's willing to let it drop for now. "Not unless you want to get jumped. And Hank thinks it's all a great idea. Though annoyingly he also thinks you're smart for keeping the Europe option open as long as possible." Tony looks fairly pleased by that, and Pepper elbows him in the ribs. "He also says the remote conference _should work _and that openly admitting that we're in a relationship should help take some of the pressure off. And that we should prepare ourselves to accept some photo ops." Which is what bothers Pepper the most. She's been _happy_ to be the woman unacknowledged in the background.

And it was silly, but she'd been hoping that Tony could just be the public face of their relationship, like he was for the company. After all, he was by far the more interesting individual in their relationship. Not to mention that most of the time, the media actually liked him.

He's always had a natural charm that Pepper for all her skills, is never gong to be able to emulate. And she's never been particularly photogenic without some serious attention to her wardrobe beforehand.

Tony looks almost guilty. "It's inevitable, I guess. Though for what it's worth I am sorry it's come to this. I've always tried hard to try and keep exactly this kind of thing from happening. Which reminds me: now that you actually have been noticed, does this mean you're going to stop wearing black and occasionally wear colors? I recognize it was effective camouflage, but it has kind of outlasted it's use. "

'Like hell.' She snickers to herself. "Black doesn't just cover all sins, it also covers all but two colors of engine grease."

But that's a silly diversion from a more serious topic. On that was brought to her attention today by Mildred, that she really can't afford to ignore. Pepper tries to decide if she wants to tackle this now, and decides she might as well. As soon as their food comes she can let it drop.

"Mildred said something that caught my attention this afternoon," she says softly. "How your serial dating has always struck her as a defense mechanism to deflect interest in your personal life."

Tony blinks and his eyes shutter almost involuntarily. "'Mildred' obviously doesn't realize how much I liked having random sex."

Just like that the man next to her has become remote and unapproachable, and Pepper hates it. They've just gone through this and they're not going to do it again. "Not as much as you – being no longer a single man - crave a regular dating life, apparently," Pepper says dryly. "Come on, Tony. You're talking to _me_. Please don't hide."

He sighs deeply. "Please don't make it out to sound noble, Pepper. Yes I've changed but that was who I was for years, and there's no prettying it up. To be fair I tended to use people who were also using me, but just because they may not have realized it right away doesn't make the whole thing any more Walt Disney. Most of them got the bragging rights they wanted in bedding a legend, and I got an itch scratched without having to worry any of them would ever end up in a morgue because of me." He shrugs a little. "I wish I could say regret it, but I don't - it was the best way to cope at the time..."

"No. That right there is _exactly_ what I mean by defense mechanism." Pepper shifts so that she's kneeling on the couch. She points at him and continues, "It's not just about keeping them safe. It's about protecting you. It's about you not getting close enough to someone whose welfare or lack thereof somehow affects you. It wasn't healthy Tony, and deep down you already know that."

He snorts. "Pepper, I realize that my reputation for self-centeredness kind of gets in my way. But since when has it ever been a bad thing to want to keep other people _alive_?" He shakes his head in bewilderment, "Not that I claim to be _everything_ the media makes me out to be...but any deeper motivations that you're trying to assign? I hate to break it to you, but you're probably overestimating me."

He can protest all he wants, but Pepper _knows_ him. Knows that he's not heartless, that he's not immune to what people say about him, that he feels things more deeply than anyone else will probably ever know - even after the photographer debacle. This has _never_ just been about protecting the woman he's with. Not primarily. It's been about protecting _him_ from his heart being shattered. But now he has her and he is vulnerable and without protection. And she has to wonder if even _she_ knows him well enough to know what might happen to him if she's seriously hurt, much less...killed.

And finally she gets it. For her, protecting him has to mean allowing him to protect _her_ as he sees fit.

He's watching her like he's uncertain of what she's thinking and Pepper realizes just how long she's been staring at him wordlessly. She smiles a little, and keeps her insights to herself. "Just don't start believing your own press, Stark," she says as she settles back down at his side. "Because I know you're capable of pursuing anything you truly want. So I know I'm never going to worry about you getting bored with me, or being unintentionally unfaithful because it's some sort of ingrained behavior, or anything like that. Because I know how you treat the people you love." And she did, she'd _seen _that side of him as it impacted every section of his life.

Tony Stark. Billionaire Supergenius. A man who still goes to his father's grave in search of answers on a regular basis. The man who'd essentially admitted to a whole press room full of reporters that he'd give anything to have that same man back for twenty minutes, because he's worried if he's actually honored his family's legacy.

Not that any of the reporters knew it. Because after all these years, most still don't ever see him. Hell, some days she suspects that even Rhodey struggles to do that much. Which is ironic since Tony considers him his oldest friend and is actually quietly building him a suit without the colonel even asking him to.

Tony is generous with his forgiveness and generous with his talent.

And yet most people will only ever see him as the purely selfish man he has only been in part.

So she just watches with tender amusement as Tony tries to regain something resembling composure because he's staring at her in something akin to awe and caught on the threshold of anger...probably because she had implied he might _ever_ be anything less than completely faithful. There's also fear building there though, though she doesn't know exactly what's causing it.

"I ordered pizza from your favorite place," she tells him, just to inject something normal and safe into the conversation. He looks like he could use the rope to grab on to. "And I was thinking we might watch a movie. Or try watching the news just for first hand experience of what we're going to be facing next week."

He nods a little. "I think first I'm going to take a shower. Pick whatever you want while you wait for delivery and we'll grab a couch and watch while we eat." And then he rises from the couch and tries not to look like a man who's just been scrubbed raw and left in need of some serious recuperative space. He still looks...well, dazed and confused. And as Pepper looks back at what she's just said with perfect aplomb, she supposes he has a reason to.

Maybe it has been a little much to drop on him all at once right now. She's not going to apologize however, because she means every word.

"I'll be here. Being a good girl," she sighs as she settles in for a long wait. "Can you at least try to be out before the pizza gets here? Because I don't really want to answer the door in your robe, but I can't get dressed without help. And I think we both know the state of my self control." Her smile invites him to join her rueful amusement.

He tries to smile back, though it doesn't entirely reach his eyes. Pepper's smile slowly fades. "All kidding aside, Tony, I'll be here." There's no qualifier about when she'll be here, just that she _will be_.

He nods at that and bends down to gently kiss her. "I'll be maybe twenty minutes, and if I'm not, have Jarvis handle the Pizza guy. It's not the first time that I've just left a 200.00 dollar tip by the vidphone in the mansion's main entry."

Pepper trembles, because that's the effect he always has on her, and it's the strain of not reaching out for him and offering him physical comfort he's shown no sign of wanting. But she smiles and nods because he _did_ kiss her, and it's still new, and wonderful, and somehow a kiss just for its own sake is its own reward. "Hell, he'll probably deserve it for dealing with the crowd outside." She rolls her eyes and reaches for her phone. "Go on now. I'm going to search through my voicemail for anything meaningful."

Tony nods and pads off toward the bathroom, keeping pace on quiet feet. "Don't... Make sure Jarvis helps you with the email. And call me right away if you find anything." He disappears into the non-master bathroom, shutting the door tightly behind him.

Once again it's driven home for Pepper just what lengths Tony is willing to go to for her. Instead of going to the room that had all his...well, soap and shampoo, and possibly _towels_, Tony's chosen the room that's closest to her just in case she's overwhelmed, or if somehow this stalker has decided to contact her directly instead of sending threatening mail to the office.

And maybe, just maybe, it's also because he simply doesn't want to be any farther away from her than he has to be.

"Jarvis? Are there towels in the guest bathroom?"

"Negative. The maids were instructed to stop delivering them there regularly after Anthony returned from Afghanistan." A telling fact she has somehow also missed, she winces a little at the realization of how much things have actually changed in that room.

'Maybe it's time to redecorate...jokes of spraying for pests set aside.' But for now, she'll settle for making sure Tony has towels and soap if he needs it. When she goes to the closet though, she's surprised to find it all but empty.

"Jarvis?" She asks a little curiously. "What happened to the towels?" Normally there are at least a dozen towel here, but at the moment none of them are available.

"I believe they are down in the dryer, Pepper. Tony had them down in the shop recently..."

When had he...? Oh yes. She flushes in remembrance. She will never look at a haircut in quite the same way. And then she smiles and goes to turn the dryer on. "Jarvis, warn me when it appears that Mr. Stark is almost finished with his shower." This at least is one little gesture of affection that shouldn't get her into too much trouble with her libido. Well, as long as she can keep herself limited to just opening the bedroom door wide enough to hand the towels off to him. And she _will. _

Because Tony deserves dinner and a movie. He's not a playboy - or at least, not only a playboy. He's a man and he deserves a chance at being normal, not just her desperation.

Besides, nether of them have specified whether making out is the expected transition that comes with a date consisting of dinner and a movie.

So she goes down to the basement with the intent of retrieving the towels, only to find when she opens the dryer door that they are actually still slightly damp. She cranks the heat up to high and sits down awhile to wait. "Jarvis can you handle the pizza guy?" she asks the AI softly. "Because this is going to take at least fifteen minutes."

In fact it takes twenty three, before she gathers the still warm fabric and heads up to the bathroom via the elevator. The towels are hot in her arms, and feel _really_ good against her bad shoulder. She has to wonder why heating pads haven't occurred to her before this, because the heat is _wonderful._

Maybe a massage and a few carefully applied heated towels really are the best option for pain treatment.

She knocks on the door of the guest bedroom, then carefully opens it and peeks inside when she doesn't get an answer. The only sound she hears is water still running in the bathroom. She carefully crosses over to that door and opens it cautiously. "Tony?" She taps on the wood of the door. "I brought you some towels." There is no answer, just the steady sound of water, so she cracks open the door.

What she sees inside is enough to make her shiver convulsively.

The room is hot and foggy, and _drenched_ in the smell of Tony. It's a specific sort of aroma that she really can't give any other name than that of its owner. The man in the shower stall has his back turned completely toward her as he leans against the tile wall and lets the heat soak into his frame. Pepper freezes, and knows she ought to turn around. However, she also knows she isn't going to unless he specifically asks her to.

Because good lord, the man is _gorgeous_. And damn it, she can look without having to _touch._

He has one arm up against the tile and his head; the other hangs limply at his side. His face is turned away from her and Pepper accepts the unknowing invitation to take her time. Until now she has been a good PA. She has tried not to stare or ogle. But now she's not really a PA anymore, and the long red streaks running down his back and accentuated by the heat of the water are there by her hands. Pepper bites her lip as she stares hungrily at his shoulders.

Of course, the way his back tapers into his hips is nothing to turn her nose up at either. She spends an equal amount of time there which naturally leads lower and she takes a small step forward as she considers how very much she'd like to have him laid out on a bed below her while she takes the time to get up close and personal with every muscle between his neck and his toes. Tony Stark is all tanned skin, and hard muscle, and calloused hands. He has enough strength and temper to hurt her if he ever forgets. And knowing he _never will forget _is one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs she's ever felt.

Then Pepper closes her eyes and forces herself to turn away because she is determined to at least feed this man before she jumps him again. And even then she is probably going to have to endure some grumbling and threats of "punishment for reneging."

"Tony," she says again as turns away. "I brought you towels. And now I'll just go finish waiting in the living room." Where she will try to keep her hands innocently occupied. The only answer she gets is a low groan, so deep she almost doesn't hear it, but when she does it's enough to make her turn back toward him.

That's when she realizes that the dangling arm that is not supporting his forehead is clenched so tightly that his nails are drawing blood.

"Tony?" She slams the door on any sort of lustful thoughts because damnit, she should have seen how tense he was, should have noticed how knotted his muscles were in spite of the water pounding them.

Pepper crosses to the glass doors of the shower and slowly slides one open. "You're bleeding. What's wrong?" She reaches inside and turns off the water. Tony actually shudders when the action causes her to brush his skin. And yet other than that he makes no move to acknowledge her. His breathing, now no longer masked by the sounds of the shower, is steady, but achingly ragged.

"Tony?" Her stomach curls up into a ball around her sinking heart as she starts replaying everything she's said to him in the last few minutes, looking for whatever it was that she _shouldn't _have said. She'd thought they were over their communication problems, but obviously not. She doesn't have the slightest cue what causing this much tension.

"I'm sorry," she whispers and she carefully rests her hand between his shoulder blades. "I don't know what I said , but -"

And then Tony's turning his whole body.

"Not. Your. Fault," he manages to admit. "Last few days have just finally hit me." He's stepping backwards in embarrassment, all but curling over himself in self unmitigated shame. "Old habits die hard..." He gestures down toward his waist. "On nights like this I normally just get hammered to deal with the erection."

"Thank you for breaking with the norm." Her words are just a little teasing, but they're really meant as an acknowledgement of what would be stupid to ignore. "Com'on," she says, reaching behind her for a towel. "I think food and then a good night's sleep are on the agenda right now rather than a movie."

He shakes his head. "Not till I get back under control. Right now I just need to...it's too hard be too close."

He's afraid she realizes, of what might happen - of offending or hurting her with this side of himself. "The way I see it," she says through a tight throat, "is we have two options right now. The first is for one of us to sleep in here tonight. One night in separate beds is not going to kill us and we're both in need of a good night's sleep. Or we can both trust you and let nature take it's course." Her lips quirk in nervousness. "I know trust you, but that's not really the issue right now, is it?"

"Don't trust myself. Like this it's too sharp an edge. Not aware enough to promise I won't slip and hurt you." It has been too long, she realizes. So very, very long since he has simply let himself _go_.

'And why are you surprised, Potts?' something murmurs inside her. 'When since the beginning has he been left with any other option?' Like he'd said earlier tonight, she's been the one with the monkey howling constantly on her back. Less than a week ago he'd watched her get injured, and his gut level response to that had been to throw a man headfirst across a concrete barrier.

Tony was inherently just as physical as she was. But she'd needed him calm, so he'd locked his own reactions down. And now all the fear and confusion and now more recently, _rage_, that had been building up were trying to find a way out of him.

Pepper takes this all in, and considers her options. She thinks about the conversations they'd had earlier that had been playful at the time, but that might actually _mean_ something now. It all hinged on one question though, "Tony? Do you trust me?" Her careful words bring his eyes up.

"To take care of me? Absolutely. I'm a little less sure you'll look out for yourself. And if you let me hurt you Pepper, then that's going to _break me_."

Pepper breathes deeply and starts replaying their conversations about control, and surrendering control, and how trust plays into things. Slowly she forms a plan around her conclusion that what Tony needs is a chance to set aside control, even if for an hour. Being in charge of him is not exactly a new experience. It's just a matter of translating office behavior into the bedroom.

"We're not really talking about me, right now, are we, though?" Pepper opens the shower door the rest of the way then steps back. "You're going to remember four words for me, Anthony. The first two are 'yes' and 'Virginia.' The second two are 'no' and 'Pepper.' Do you understand?"

"Pepper…" He says the word alone and absent of everything else. Because no matter what she thinks, it is never that easy.

Except in Pepper's eyes, somehow it literally_ is_. "I don't believe for a second you're capable of actually hurting me, Tony. If you were, you wouldn't be in here making yourself _bleed _on the chance that you somehow_ might _hurt me." She holds out a towel. "Come dry off. Let's get something to eat..."

He pauses and she sighs before continuing more firmly "Whether we sleep together or alone, you're not going to be touching me, Anthony. You'll keep your hands to yourself. Oh and for the record, from this moment on I am going to assume that 'Pepper' means the exact same thing as 'no.'"

He stares at her hard for one long breathless moment, and then he nods and steps out of the shower, "Then we need a better signal system, _Potts_. Because there are times when yes or no simply don't cut it. I suggest we try red, green and yellow lights. If you want to 'play' with you as _top_ I'm game, but only with _mutually agreed upon _ground rules."

That's the last thing he says as he steps out of the shower, in a tone that is not confrontational nor particularly loud, just simply matter of fact. His legs are shaking though, with the effort that this apparent normality is causing him. He trusts her she realizes. Enough to hand over the reins with what he considers reasonable stipulations.

Not that she thinks many stipulations are going to be needed tonight. Yes, she's going to be a little tough on him, but it's the only way he'll let her take care of him. The only time he ever listens to her concerns is when she's metaphorically kicking his ass.

But considering some of the glances she's caught that she suspects she wasn't _supposed_ to, that transition shouldn't be too difficult. For the next few hours she is going to take care of him, and first and foremost that means feeding him and herself. Because she leftover quiche she'd finished earlier hadn't been nearly enough to fuel all their activities in the past twenty four hours.

"We are going to eat," she tells him as she takes the towel from his hands and wraps it around his waist. Her hands brush against his skin as she fastens it securely, but she tries not to notice his reaction. "The pizza will be here soon, and we are going to sit down and find something to watch on TV. There's usually something interesting on the Discovery channel around this time." She holds out her hand and waits for him to take it. When he doesn't she just raises an eyebrow at him. "Hand holding is a perfectly innocent, date-appropriate sign of affection."

He sighs a little. "Can we try the Science Channel? I've already seen every Mythbusters they're playing this weekend." Then he takes her hand with only the barest discernable shudder and heads with her into the hallways not waiting for an answer to his question.

"I've never known you to turn down an explosion, Mr. Stark." The little smile she gives him over her shoulder is wry and feminine. Her hand twists and slides in her hands in his, making the most of the contact. His hands are everything hers aren't and it's one of the reasons she loves them so much.

"Potts, I have never been one to enjoy much of anything vicariously. So what kind of pizza did you get? Please God, tell me it's not covered in rabbit food." He actually starts to salivate at the box that is waiting for them in the mansion's main entry.

"Half meat lover's supreme, half Hawaiian with tomato, black olives, and red onion. The salad is on the side." She reluctantly lets go of his hand. "Go get the TV warmed up. I'm going to go check on the pizza and grab a bottle of wine."

He starts to obey then pauses in the doorway. "Pepper, if you don't mind I really prefer soda or water..." He winces as soon as the words leave his lips. "'I'm sorry...'Virginia.' Old habits die hard. Get wine for yourself if you want, but prefer not to drink any."

"Sit. Stop worrying about what I _might_ be thinking. Understand?" Her voice is mild, but there's an undercurrent of disapproval and command in her voice and eyes hold his. For a minute he holds the contact, and the tension stretches out. But Pepper doesn't back down, she just waits for him to acknowledge her control right now.

After a moment he acknowledges the order with a nod, and goes over to the sofa to plop down. By the time she gets back with the food he's got the blanket that was lying on the other end of the loveseat spread out and draped across the length of his body. She slides the pizza box onto the table and sets down the two bowls of salad she'd been balancing. Her portion is bigger than his.

"What are we watching?" she asks as she settles herself carefully and takes a sip of her wine. Then she sits it down on the table, balances a slice of pizza on the rim of her salad bowl, and pulls part of the blanket into her lap. Her feet end up nestled against his thigh.

"I haven't been really looking," Tony admits, taking the bowl of salad and wrinkling his nose at the pre-applied dressing. In front of them on the television, Alton Brown is adding a wood plank to his barbeque. "Who is this guy? I thought this was a cooking channel, but he's jerry-rigging a barbeque."

"That is the patron saint of do-it-yourself cooks." Pepper informs him with no little amusement. "I can't believe that you have never seen him before."

Of course, he doesn't cook, and there's rarely explosions on Good Eats even if there is science involved. Pepper shifts her feet so that her toes are against bare skin. His skin is warm and slightly scratchy with hair under her toes, and she thinks –

"How hard would it be to invite him to dinner?" He's watching rapt as the man puts an aluminum foil _hat_ atop his head. Pepper just chokes on her salad and wonders if that particular meeting could ever end well. As soon as she finishes her salad she quickly polishes off her first slice of pizza and starts the second. She is _starving_. Tony pops the cap on the bottle of lemon seltzer she's brought him and drinks half of it down while she watches.

"You sure you don't want some of this Merlot? It's really good." She offers a sip from her glass.

He shakes his head and grabs a piece of pizza. "I've got a bet going with someone actually. No alcohol until the end of next week."

She blinks, "You and Rhodey?"

He shakes his head. "Me and Jarvis. If lose, I promised him he can play whatever he wants down in the shop for a month without me complaining."

Pepper looks at him, observes the way he's not quite meeting her eyes. This is something else they're going to have to talk about, but not tonight. "Jarvis has a taste in music?" she asks instead as she finishes her second piece of pizza.

"Unfortunately, yes. Somebody introduced him to show tunes. And then Rhodey bought him the sound track to Cats, against my explicit instructions." He takes another bite of Pizza, then shivers involuntarily in the chilly room. "Okay seeing as somebody has shoplifted my bathrobe, is it acceptable if I come back in just a couple minutes?"

"I told you it was all I could get into. Don't get up, we can have Jarvis turn up the heat."

"Virginia, please let me dress. A pair of socks and sweat pants at least. Normally I wouldn't care, but I'm already getting goosebumps, and this blanket is itchy." He doesn't turn to look at her when he makes the formal request but his posture and tone are the very picture of meekness.

There's no question that he'll accept any outcomes that she decides on.

"Okay," she says softly. "Go get dressed. But I expect you to come back promptly."

"Thank you." He returns in under three minutes, with a pair of light grey socks, and a pair of stretch pants so old and soft they utterly fail to hide anything about his body. He slides back onto the couch with a grin that is practically normal. Pepper smiles back and moves several inches closer. When he turns his attention back to the show, she turns all of hers on him.

It's strange to think she _can_ stare now without having to worry about the consequences of being caught. The freedom is exciting. He eats with a characteristic disregard for what he's putting into his mouth. Right now he's focused on Alton Brown and the science of curing meat with woodsmoke which apparently has something to do with the barbecue. His hands are quick and sure, and his posture is more relaxed than she's seen it in days.

This little experiment of hers seems to be working fine so far.

She sips her wine carefully, knowing that the moment she advances her seduction he'll question whether or not she's had too much to drink. But the weight of the round globe of the glass is soothing in her hand. And honestly, it gives her a secondary focus as her eyes drop down to Tony's chest. Because of the way he doesn't hide it, Pepper's almost gotten used to the sight of the reactor. But the scars scattered across his chest, white against the healthy skin, are harder to swallow. They're testimony to the violence that almost took him from her before she ever had the opportunity to even _try_ to tell him how she felt.

She thinks that part of the reason the arc reactor doesn't bother her is because it's the only reason she still has him.

Tony leans forward and reaches for another slice of pizza; Pepper lets herself be distracted but the smooth motion of muscle under skin, the ripple and flow of power. "Virginia please stop staring," Tony whispers after a moment, never taking his eyes of the television. "I am trying, but I am not infallible when it comes to willpower, no matter what you might think."

"Touch me without permission, Anthony, and you'll regret it," she murmurs without taking her eyes away from his body as he sits back on the couch.

"I'm merely letting you know my limits." He carefully avoids her eyes, but the stirring in his sweat pants more than tells her he's not really focused on Alton Brown any longer. She watches his lips as he chews.

"That's why you have handcuffs in the spare bedroom," she reminds him. The man actually stiffens just a little.

"Pepper, no offense, but please don't even _joke_ about restraining me." This was an obvious red light.

Not for the first time, Pepper wishes she knew more about what had happened to him in Afghanistan. But she nudges her toes against his hip and nods when he turns to look at her. "Sorry," she mouths silently.

He nods a little, hand instinctively rising to rub at the arc reactor in the center of his chest. "You didn't know. Just...we'll explore that kink another time. When I've got a few shots of vodka in me."

"That or we can handcuff ourselves to each other and see what happens." Her foot slides into lap. "Though, that would cut down on maneuverability in tight places." Her tone is light but her eyes are watchful for his reaction, either to her words or her touch. He shivers, but this time in a good way, and she watches in amusement as he tries valiantly not to look down at his lap.

He points at the television. "So is the guy going to be jerry-rigging kitchen appliances all night or should we find something different after this?"

"Are you done eating?" He nods at the same moment he takes another bite of pizza and she just shakes her head at his hormone induced absentmindedness. "No you're not," she disagrees. "I'm not going anywhere. And as you said, we have all night." She takes another sip of her wine and leaves her foot in his lap though it's now motionless.

He continues chewing hazily, eyes fixed on the TV and it takes her a moment to pick up on another sound. His right foot is tapping rhythmically against the carpeted floor. It continues through a commercial break and the end of the show.

He's just so adorably helpless right now that Pepper can't help but lean forward and remove the half-eaten slice of pizza from his hand. "Go wait for me in the bedroom," she says as she starts gathering up the remains of their meal.

If he gets up in the middle of the night she wants him to at least be able to eat cold pizza and not room temperature, dubiously safe pizza. It takes a long moment for the order to actually register, but when it does he complies with another nod.

She puts the box away, then, just to be evil, decides to linger a few extra minutes in the kitchen. She adds another half inch of wine to her glass, stops by the guest bathroom to check her teeth for stray food particles, and then fusses with her hair. It's starting to look a little matted and she wrinkles her nose before doing her best to fluff it up a little. It is probably the best she can do without another wash and rinse...which she's looking forward to more than she should.

After a final tug to the neck of the robe so that the lapels started to part just at the beginning of her cleavage, Pepper wanders down the hall to the bedroom.

She finds Tony inside, taking apart some kind of circuit board he's pulled out from who knows where with intent eyes and disappointingly steady hands.

'I'm actually going to have to tell him that anything involving circuitry is banished to any room outside this one,' she realizes with a little jolt. It's never even occurred to her that her fiercest competition won't be another woman but a computer instead. She leans against the doorframe and sips her wine, waiting for him to look up and notice her. Ten minutes pass and Pepper starts to feel a little insulted.

She's beginning to wonder if she should go back to watching TV until he fails to hide his chuckle any longer.

He doesn't look at her, just adjusts a particular section, holding it up to the light to study it carefully. "Something wrong, Virginia?" he asks in a growl so much like the one from last night she nearly tackles him right then and there.

But she forces herself to smirk. "Wrong? No. I'm not sure you could actually hold up if you owed me more than ten minutes of your life in return for your little stunt. And this is your official notice that anything that involves 'tinkering' at some stage is officially banned from this room."

Pepper holds out her hand for the circuit board. and Tony raises an eyebrow before he hands it over. "I suppose I should be grateful you didn't just say anything 'electronic.'" His smirk grows even wider. "Because that one you would have _never_ convinced me to accept."

Pepper carefully sets his little project against the wall in the hallway, and then she closes the door. "The only electronics you're thinking of had better be battery powered and made of lifelike silicone," she warns him. "Because neither of us is bringing work - or anything that might be even construed as work - into this room. And yes, that includes cell phones since Jarvis can get a hold of us in case of an emergency."

Tony smiles with all his teeth, "That's a reasonable deal, Potts, assuming you know I can demand equal repayment if I look in your eyes and _know_ you're writing board meeting briefs in your head."

A slow, wicked smile spreads across her lips. "Someday you're going to have to find a better threat. Because the thought of having your fingers buried in me isn't the least bit deterring, Anthony." Her eyes slip down to his empty hands and she moistens her lips with the tip of her tongue. Then she shrugs and meets his eyes again.

He chuckles softly and scoots backward across the mattress. "Who said that's what I'd do in retaliation? I'm on a limited option list until your shoulder is better. Just because I'm not into cuffs at present doesn't mean I can't think of a few ways they might be helpful later."

"Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," she reminds him. Then she shifts her weight so there's something about her posture that's now slightly...assertive. And the man on the bed seems to see that and consciously slip back into his role.

The change that befalls him is a little hard to explain. Hs eyes turn inward and his muscles uncurl. It's not that he looks relaxed per se, instead he looks...the only word is _ready_. There's a tension there under the surface though, that she doesn't know if she should worry about or not.

She hasn't done this much, despite her predilections. It's not an aspect of herself she's had means to practice or study and the man in front of her, as she's just started figuring out, may be just as good at hiding his true self as she is. Still some things are mastered only with practice, and she assumes that this is one of them.

"Lie back." There's just something about watching him, something about the thought that he's somehow preparing himself for her that makes her voice a throaty purr. She can see him shiver as he moves to obey. As he does, she takes one last sip of her wine and sets it down across the room before she moves over to the bed. She has to pull the hem of the robe up around her knees to get up onto the mattress and once she is there she just kneels by his hip...considering.

He's spread out in front of her, a sensory feast, and she's not sure where to begin. Tony meanwhile is simply waiting with his hands lying just to his sides. He's studying his observer and doing his best to keep a straight face.

"Tony? What's your standard recovery time?" Only a blind woman would have missed the effect her words have on the man in front of her.

His erection jerks under her gaze and she swears she can actually _hear_ him swallow. And because she can't help herself, she reaches out with a single finger and traces a tight circle around his nipple. "Depends..." He squeaks just a little, and she smiles softly in retribution.

"On what exactly?" Her voice is quiet. Tony's is hoarse when he offers an answer.

"Amount of sleep, amount of food...how long since the last time it's been."

"Calculate the factors and give me an estimate on your recovery time if I made you come right now." Her finger brushes over the tiny erect peak, and then she gently rolls it between finger and thumb.

"Fifteen minutes until I can get hard again, another twenty seven until I can actually finish." She whistles and he chuckles. "These are _not_ normal circumstances. Even after twice in two days...well for me that's not exactly pushing the envelope."

Which is probably true, in one matter of speaking. Back in the old days Tony kept to two distinct patterns, depending where he was in his work cycle. If he was simply doing revisions or normal paperwork then he tended to find some company two days every week and one day of every weekend. When Tony is in 'invent mode', though, it is a completely different story. She's seen him go three weeks without as much as blinking at an attractive secretary.

When the work was done though...well suffice it to say that she learned early on to take the day off and avoid the mansion on _both _Saturday and Sunday of those particular weeks.

Because Tony coming off a creative kick is Tony absolutely _starving_, and that hunger extends to every corner of his life. Even years later she's never been able to erase the memory of the one time she had stumbled in on that rule being explicitly demonstrated.

She'd immediately turned her back on the couple, but she'd seen enough to know that Tony wasn't just conscientious about his cars and his robots. Seeing him with his head buried between that other woman's thighs was something she was never going to be able to forget.

She's starting to breathe hard as she looks down at him, just remembering. It'd been impossible for her the following Monday to forget just how attentive Tony could be. Even when he'd kept asking why she looked flushed...especially then...all she had been able to think about was exactly how generous her boss could be.

It had taken her nearly a week to be able to look him in the eye. Though thankfully after the third time he'd inquired as to her unusual absent mindedness he'd actually taken a little bit of pity and just let her be.

She shifts on top of him restlessly as her body starts to throb with want. The image from the past becoming part of the sight of him below her now, and she wants to groan because right now she's taking care of HIM, not jumping him to sate her own needs.

"You're not to touch me," she reminds him in a throaty growl of her own as she gently tugs at the waistband of his pants. She wants to make him come while she's still in control of herself - while she can watch and listen and experience it without the distraction of the need his hands on her skin immediately creates. And then she wants to touch every inch of him with her hands and mouth while he rouses under her. She wants to make the complete journey with him, not just show up at the station at the same time as he does.

That is what it feels like they've been doing, both of them going from either rational or irrational to desperate at the same time. She wants the slow build-up and she wants to know it's because of her and not the effect of a multiplicity of emotions raised at one time. The man on the bed groans. "Virginia? You're going to have to be more specific about this whole 'no touching' edict. Because if I take that in the _literal_ sense I'm going to have to get out of bed."

She rakes her fingers down the inside of his thighs and smiles as he gasps. "Hands to yourself, Anthony," she specifies as she eases his pants past his knees and off his feet.

He retaliates by leaning upward and pulling the belt from her robe free with a sharp tug from his teeth.

She manages to catch his chin before he can fully withdraw. "No." It's all she says, but it's the same severe tone she uses when he tries to slip past her to the garage when he's supposed to be leaving the house for something. "You are going to let me do this _without_ interference." And then her lips twitch into a smile she quickly smothers. "If you wake up first _tomorrow _then we can revisit the rules."

He tilts his head, apparently considering. "Whoever falls asleep first gets first crack when they wake up, regardless of the time of day. It's a fair trade, Potts. Every time before being the one in charge had been measured in hours not a whole fucking _night_."

"You did realize that tomorrow starts in roughly two and half hours, right?" Pepper asks in bemusement. She moves so that she's straddling his legs, and then leans down to inhale deeply against his hip. When she breathes out it's a slow wash of heat against his skin.

"I am a very light sleeper." He digs his hands down hard into the bed sheets. "And I'm not sitting on my hands if I happen to wake up at fucking 11:45."

Pepper just starts running a trail of small, sipping kisses down his abdomen. Tony inhales heavily, tightening his grip on the sheets, then closes his eyes and starts regulating his breathing. Her hair touches him first, and she loves the way he inhales so deeply his body shudders, loves the way he holds it until she thinks he might actually explode. When she reaches for him, she tilts her head up so she can watch the expression on his face as her fingers close around him in a grip that is immediately tight.

"How do you want me to touch you?" she purrs low in her throat as his chest actually comes up off the bed. Her fist slides up, her thumb pressing firmly against the underside of his cock until she reaches the head. She quickly rolls her thumb over it several times before her grip loosens and just the tips of her fingers skim back down to his base where they circle him and fall still.

"What you're doing is just fine." Tony actually gurgles a little. "Heaven forbid I mess with a natural savant."

Pepper actually snorts. This has always been one circumstance where her need to touch has always been welcome. It's just that often she'd become too alienated by the way her former boyfriends had turned down other forms of contact that she eventually lost interest in anything more intimate. She gets the feeling that's not going to be the case with Tony.

She thinks he'll understand her need to touch hands, to sneak quick hugs, to rest her hand on his shoulder like she's been dying to when she's brought him files to look over and sign for the last few months. She looks forward to having his hand on the small of her back as they walk together, his hand in her hair when they're watching TV side by side, his hand sneaking somewhere inappropriate when he's bored by the reports she brings him.

When she bows her head and laps at the moisture beading at his tip, the strangled shout he lets out is by far the sexiest, most complimentary thing she's ever heard.

And then he's speaking a language she's relatively sure isn't Latin.

'He's actually managing it,' she realizes with amazement. She's asked him to lie and let her do this, and he's doing his best. Granted his muscles are so tightly bunched with the effort they look like they could possibly rip... She rewards the good behavior with another wet swipe of her tongue, and he gasps her name in response. "Pepper." The word is followed by more nonsense, she supposes under the circumstances she shouldn't punish him for it too harshly.

So she settles for bringing her other hand up, using it to firmly cup his balls. And then without warning, she sucks the whole head into her mouth.

His hips arch off the bed and her peripheral vision can see his hands hovering to either side of her head. "Pepper!" It's a plea for mercy of some kind. So as she tightens her knees around his thighs for added support, she reaches out her good hand and entwines her fingers with his. His fingers are almost painfully tight around hers, but his other hand lowers to the bed again.

Pepper makes use of the ten minutes he owes her. Sometimes it means taking her hand and mouth off his cock to give him a few seconds of respite before she starts teasing him again. Sometimes it means her right hand is gentle on him as her mouth roughly works over his hips, thighs, and belly. And somewhere near the end of the ten minutes...maybe three or four minutes shy, perhaps that many over...his tone changes and there's no quelling the rocking motion of his hips. She pulls her lips back so that the head of him is in her mouth and then her right hand roughly glides over the moisture her mouth left behind. Her fist impacts his public bone once, twice...

He comes and she sees him through it, though there's no hiding her breathless gasps as she finally lets him go. She doubts he can even hear them over his own desperate pants though. He's no longer coming, but his body is still heaving and trembling under her as the last of his orgasm rocks through him.

When the tremors cease he's a pool of limp flesh, so completely relaxed that he almost lacks the muscle control to smile. "Love you, Potts," he manages quietly. "Promise to return the favor, just give me one minute."

The offer makes her quiver because she is so aroused right now that she can feel her dampness against her thighs. And she can perfectly imagine the image of his dark head buried between thighs spread wide by his shoulders. It's appealing, and an offer she means to take up.

Just not now.

She shakes her head against his hip and drags herself up his body. "Not yet. Though if you make that offer in another fifteen minutes or so, I'll accept." His eyes are closed and she uses both hands to gently trace the features of his face. "I don't want to be distracted by my body as I watch you come back to yours."

His hair is damp with sweat but soft against her fingers and she leans down low to breathe him in. She smells clean sweat, and the faintest trace of soap, and Tony, and heat. Her head spins a little with the scent, and she drags down another deep breath before she starts nuzzling his neck.

"May take a little longer than fifteen minutes," he manages to whisper. "But I promise, I'll more than make good." And then his breathing changes, just a little, and his eyes, which are only half cracked open, fall into full sleep.

"I love you too," she murmurs and stretches out to lie beside him.


	8. Chapter 8

Pepper has no idea how long she's been sleeping, and no conscious memory of actually passing out. One moment she is lying next to Tony as he sleeps, and then the next she simply _isn't. _That isn't to say that Tony isn't still _present_, it is just that neither of them are in his bed any longer. Instead her semi-conscious mind is aware of movement - of the gentle sway of being carried from one place to another...

It's about that same moment when she realizes that she's no longer wearing his bathrobe.

"Tony?" She doesn't lift her head from where it's resting against his shoulder, though she does try and move her arms to hold him, reveling in skin against skin. Her left arm is successful, but her right shoulder just makes an aborted twitching motion.

"Mmmm. Ow. Ouch What time is it?" She asks the question through an open-mouthed yawn.

"About 7:45 am," Tony smiles as he answers. "You were moaning in your sleep. I figured that meant you shoulder had gotten pretty uncomfortable."

She nods a bit. Uncomfortable is an understatement, the muscles are tight an almost unbearably stiff. "Yeah, well I think I kind of passed out in a less than ideal position."

"Easy enough to fix. I did promise you a massage. First though, I figured we'd try some heat to help loosen you up."

With those words the door directly in front of him slides open. The room that they enter isn't one that she's entirely familiar with, though the colors inside it remind her vaguely of others she's seen in the mansion's third floor north wing. Tony mostly keeps this section of the house for storage. He rarely has enough company that he actually needs the space. She has no idea what they are doing up here now until she sees the deep set hot tub in the corner. The room itself is lit by dozens of gently flickering candles.

"Hmm...perfect temperature. Just on the edge of too hot." She nods as he bends so that her fingers can graze the water, as if asking her opinion. "Deep enough to drown in though. How were you going to get me in there if I didn't wake up?" Her bruises sting from the heat at first, but then the liquid warmth penetrates past the surface and goes to work on the ache, forcing knots to start unwinding. Pepper lets out a sigh of pure contentment and slides over to make room for Tony as she watches him through half-lowered eyelids.

"Same thing I'm doing now." He strips unselfconsciously. "Though I may have had to lay you on the bed to get the pants and the socks off if I'd had to step in while holding you." He shucks off his stretch pants and his boxers before he climbs over the upturned rim and settles with her leaning back against his chest. "Granted, it may have taken some maneuvering, but you would have woken up eventually. And if I'd gotten to feel you up until then?" He grins. "I'd have been willing to make the sacrifice.

"Your selflessness astounds me," she teases as she relaxes back into him. "Though you could have also just made the trip up here naked. You got me out of your robe, after all. how hard could anything else be?"

"Wasn't worried about it. And you sleep like the dead." His hands settle carefully on her hips underwater stroking her tired joints soothingly. "I can get you another muscle relaxant if you like, but I thought we could try the non-narcotic route first. Because I know you were complaining that the drugs leave you groggy."

"I think I would like to wait on the drugs - the water's great. I'm still not convinced that my brain actually functions the way it's supposed to when I've got that stuff in me. Sure, it's better than the Percocet, but still..." Her hands find his legs just above the knee and rest there.

"Yeah, I kind of figured - give the water some time. If you can take it any warmer, let me know - because the hotter the better. The trick of this is to get the muscles to relax as much as they possibly can, so you'll be as pliable as possible when I get you to the bed and get out the good massage oil…" A soft hum of pleased anticipation escapes from her throat and she closes her eyes again. She's still sleepy, and given the past few days she knows he's not about to let her drown if she nods off.

Still, she's a little curious, "What's with the field trip all the way upstairs? This seems like a lot of effort coming all the way up here just for a bath and a massage."

"Are you complaining?" he murmurs backs, brushing her hair off one shoulder and lightly kissing the skin that that action reveals. He wonders if she really doesn't remember her earlier protests. If she won't _sleep_ in the guest room across from his alone, then he's not going to suggest that they bathe in there together. He feels the sting of her previous comments enough already without having her rub salt in to a freshly cut wound.

Pepper meanwhile, is answering his gentle but deflecting question. "Me, complaining?" She shakes her head and leans back farther against his shoulder. "Who am I to argue with a guy who is willing to risk setting his house on fire with this many candles?"

"The entire house has a fire suppression system. Stop thinking so much." He digs his thumb into a knot in her shoulder... "Hmmm...not quite long enough, the muscles are still pretty rigid." He settles both arms around her waist. "Just another fifteen to twenty minutes and we can move you, I think."

"Fifteen minutes?" Pepper can't help the smirk that curls her lips up into a smug smile. "Seems I've heard that estimation before. I hope your calculations are a bit more accurate this time. I'd hate to be in here for another ten _hours_ if you're wrong."

He snorts softly and pinches her hip in retaliation. "Not my fault. I had inadequate information for a real calculation. Your inherently evil nature was an unknown variable not adequately accounted for. And besides," he chuckles softly, "For the record I _did_ wake up at 11:48. _You _were dead to the world though, and I wasn't able to wake you."

Pepper pries her eyes open and tilts her head back to look at him. "Do you mean you couldn't bring yourself to try to wake me, or you tried with no success?"

"A little of both, actually. Though you do have a rather impressive hickie on the side of your neck if you doubt the extent of my efforts."

Actually..._that_ she might remember a little of. It's just that once she'd fallen asleep, it'd felt like she'd gotten hit by a load of bricks and even the few sensations that had brought her out of a deep sleep hadn't been enough to wake her up. Her brain had needed the time to retreat from everything, apparently. And speaking of retreats... "Tony? You're _sure_ I didn't say anything wrong last night? After that debacle of a meeting I don't want to suffer through that kind of miscommunication again." They're a few hours out now, and Pepper's having a hard time finding any excuse for his behavior other than she'd said something she shouldn't have. Even if there hadn't been any miscommunication, he obviously hadn't been ready for her tactless honesty. She'd managed to hurt him. And that keeps surprising her, though it probably shouldn't. She's having trouble though, remembering the man is not his guise, and that he probably never has been.

She doesn't know how not to wander into emotional landmine fields though, so all she can do is ask and hope he can give her some clues on how to prevent it from happening again.

Tony only shrugs non-commitally. "Pepper, it's fine. I think the serious lack of sleep the last several days just finally bit me in the ass. I went kind of loopy...but hey this is _me_ after all. Loopy has always been my natural state, you've just never seen it in this context before."

Pepper hears the unspoken cue to let it go, but she can't. The state he'd been in last night is something she'd like to avoid seeing him in again. "Tony, if I used the phrase 'I'm fine' on you, you would threaten to _spank_ me. And not in a fun way. Something _hurt_ you last night, and since I was probably the cause, you need to stop deflecting and just tell me _what."_

The man behind her sighs. "I _didn't_ say I'm fine. I said _it's_ fine. Which it honestly is at the moment. There is a huge distinction between acting deliberately and just reacting instinctively, which is what happened last night. I'm not trying to be difficult Pepper, I just don't know what you want me to_ say. _I'd have to think about it awhile if you want specifics of what bothered me."

She turns a little when there's nothing more said, to find herself staring at a man who is at complete loss for words. The look on his face is a milder version of what was there last night and Pepper can't help but reach up to try to smooth the wrinkles out of his forehead. "Then we'll let it go until you've had some time to sort it out in your head," she offers quietly. "But I need you to promise me that if there's topics you need me to avoid you will _**say**_ something. Kinda like you did with the handcuffs."

"I will if I can, Potts, but expect a few road bumps. It's all been a major adjustment and right now I don't even always know what's going to set me off."

'He's describing PTSD.' Pepper realizes with a small shiver. Her eyes search his face for a few moments before she slowly nods and molds her body into his again. "I keep forgetting that this is new to both of us. It just seems so natural sometimes." The physical part has been so _easy_.

They're both going to have to be careful though, to factor for the emotional. And as odd as it sounds she may not be the one in the greater danger.

"It has been pretty strange," she acknowledges quietly, "for both you and me."

"I understand," he murmurs against her neck. "My God, it's actually been less than a week. I still can't quite take that in." After a moment he turns on the water again maintaining the temperature in the tub. "You know, remind me when I start remodeling on the ground floor to get another whirlpool installed in this particular model. The layout is definitely better."

"You're thinking of adding another hot-tub?" Pepper asks after a moment. "Is there something wrong with the one you already have?" Then the answer slams into the back of her head hard enough to make her wince and pull away from him slightly.

The mask that lingers on his face is subtle, but she can still read the hurt buried deep.

"Okay, I _know_ that I said something wrong, then," she whispers more to herself than to him. Then she shifts around until can be truly face to face with him. "Tony, we need to talk about this. I didn't mean to hurt you with those cracks about the guest room the other night. I really think it was mostly just a misunderstanding..."

"Misunderstanding?" Tony's voice sounds ironically bitter. "That implies one of us wasn't being truthful, and I know you meant every word you said. I don't have to like the _implications_, but it's also not fair to blame you for what amounts to your instinctive feelings."

_'So much damage_,' some part of her realizes. She'd done so much damage with those poorly chosen words. She wonders how deeply she's unintentionally cut him. She also wonders how long it will take her to get him to trust her enough to really let her see. "Look, Tony - I'm not denying that I've blamed the room for the purpose it was used for. And I'd definitely like to redecorate and buy a new mattress for it. But my main objection to the whole thing stemmed from the way it felt like you were totally dismissing my feelings just because you seemed to find them irrelevant."

"Irrelevant, no. A little insulting yes. It wasn't exactly heartening, Pepper, to realize how little you think of me. I'm afraid shock of hearing you say what you did probably brought out the scientist in me." He groans. "Pepper, you've known me for _years_: and while I'm not exactly a sterling model of the domestic male, I have _always_ done my best for the women who join me. You make it sound like I treat them like garbage."

He means it, she realizes - at least in one manner. She's known for years now that he's an enthusiastic and particularly generous lover when he chooses to be. The sheer number of women that pour in and out of his bed are a testament to a lot of things yes, but certainly poor bedroom _technique _is nowhere on the list.

She worries a bit, though, about how he is able to discount the hurt or anger he causes his flings after he leaves the bedroom in the aftermath. "Tony, it's not your_ in-bed _manners that piss most women off. But you do hurt people, and I know it, because I've dealt with the consequences on a regular basis."

He grimaces a little, "I have always figured it was _kinder_ to let it be handled by another woman in the morning. Because being there in the harsh light of day has only seemed to make it _worse_. It reserves a lot more of their dignity." He runs a hand back through is hair. "When I stay most of them just get weepy or angry or demanding, which is unfair, because I've never _once_ told any of them that I am in this for _anything_ but some mutual recreation."

'Which only makes it worse.' Pepper realizes after a moment. 'How can it _not_ be worse, after the taste of what those women were missing that Tony unintentionally gives them.' Tony is...well Tony. As much light and generosity and genius as he was a self obsessed, petty, spoiled _brat_. To have any of those better traits turned on you was to witness something remarkable, and then to wake up the next morning and realize you could never actually _have_ it? Well, Pepper can't imagine anything more devastating.

It is no wonder that women like Christine Everhart turn that feeling into a deep sense of loathing. Most people who saw Tony the lover probably ended up partly in love with him.

"Tony, if they weren't worth your time when they were dressed, then how was I supposed to see them except as trashy? Besides, while I'm sure you're eerily accurate at guessing a woman's cup size, your assessments of their character outside of the bedroom has always left something to be desired." Some of the insults that Pepper's had to take...well, not lying down exactly since she's easily able to flay most of them - but they've been pretty vicious nonetheless.

She knows a lot of people think that she enables him to be a bastard and in one sense up until now, it's likely that by not bringing up this subject before, she probably has. But she's also never pitied the women, because they've always made their own choices. She is living proof that until recently at least, the best way to _keep_ Tony Stark is _not_ to sleep with him.

"I've never said it was pretty, Pepper - but you're the one who had to make it so _ugly_. I'm _sick _of being the bad guy nine times out of every ten when I'm not the only guilty party. Because yes, I used the women I picked up for sex, but people are idiots if they claim that none of the women who took up my offer weren't taking equal advantage of _me_. I'm sorry if letting them out in the mornings means you ended up a target, but if you'd told me how much you hated it than I would have found another way - started taking them to a hotel or some other nonsense."

"You couldn't have just tried dating? A normal relationship" She squeezes his knee. "Tony you _have_ to know it would have been more fulfilling."

"Oh yes, because any decent sort of woman is _dying_ to put up with my day to day life, and even if she were I'm supposed to risk her life with the death threats and the damn paparazzi?"

He clears his throat roughly and looks at her dead on. "It has _never_ been about intimacy. Add together all the rest of the pieces of my life and until now, _sex _is really all that was left to me." He drops his head then and mutters something low. She can barely make it out, "You of_ all _people should understand. You're built the same damn way: skin starvation makes me _crazy_. The only other thing that shuts it down is contact or alcohol, and forgive me if I don't want to die of alcoholism by age fifty."

The words slam into her belly like a sledge hammer, as things that he's only hinted at before now come fully to light.. 'Three ways to deal with it...you chose option numbers two and three.' Tony though, _Tony_ had obviously picked coping mechanism number _one_. 'Touch as many people as you can as safely as you can, and as often as you can' was the way he'd chosen to put it. And she just wants to _cry_ then, because she knows what he _doesn't_.

Choosing option number one is the worst self punishment of all. Pure sex doesn't kill the need for contact anymore than eating just lettuce satisfies an empty belly.

'Has he always been this way - ever since he was little?" She doesn't know, but she's beginning to have her suspicions that it's probably the case. She's seen the pictures of him and his parents, and if one theme ties it all together it's that in the various candid shots, Tony Stark and his parents were always close or touching.

Pepper doesn't know for certain, but she's willing to bet that he regularly had the shit hugged out of him. The devastation of losing that when his parents died must have been compounded by puberty. And then adolescent hormones combined with an increasingly beautiful face must have presented what turned out to be an attractive alternative option about the time he'd come of age.

'But he's never figured out why the sex is barely enough.' It's no wonder that he's so completely and encompassing _jealous_ of any competition for her time - hell even for Rhodey's. The two of them are as close to real intimates as he's got in his life. Pepper bites her lip and turns her head away so he can't see her face. "I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty, Tony. It's just that I sometimes wished you could have done better than the bitches you brought home, you deserved better. Because skin on skin is nice, but it doesn't keep the touch from being empty." Her breath hitches a little. "And I say that because I _do_ understand."

He cusses under his breath again, at the same time he moves, and for a terrible couple of seconds Pepper thinks she's said too much and that he's going to vacate the tub. But instead he reaches forward and tugs her gently but insistently back to lie against him, returning her to the spooning position the were in before.

"It's not worth getting angry about. We both coped the best we could. Just be glad you had more luck with abstinence than me...for which I envy you." He shakes his head and buries his face in her hair for awhile. "At least I can comfort myself with the fact that the semi-regular one night stands curbed my drinking a considerable amount. If I'd been a complete drunk I guarantee you never would have been able to find _anything_ you liked about me."

He speaks like this is all a terrible secret, like his entire personality is unforgivable. Like she wouldn't have fallen for him in a heartbeat if she hadn't been working for him. Pepper groans and just shakes her head. "You give me to much credit...Tony, if I had ever found a man who'd been able to put up with my hands on him all the time -" She would have taken it. And considering how many creeps there are in the world, she supposes that in hindsight, she could have ended up _really_ unlucky.

"You would have been lucky and I would have been fucked. People who aren't grounded in the physical can't understand it. Hell it's not even mostly about sex, people just _assume_ that it is..."

He does understand then -at least in part. "Everyone's happy for the first few days, or weeks," she continues unconsciously. "But then the cuddling outside the bedroom gets on their nerves, or the way you sit a little too close starts making them claustrophobic, or they accuse all the fleeting little touches you give without thinking about it of being possessive or jealous instead of natural and instinctive..."

His arms tighten around her. "And then all you're left with is an empty bed and some really unsavory choices about how to shut it all off and keep going."

"Tony..." Pepper turns her head and blindly searches for his mouth with her lips. "Has it been fifteen minutes yet?" She _needs_ to touch him. Because they're not in that place any more. They don't _need_ to feel this perpetually starved anymore.

He kisses her briefly. "Not quite yet...and you really, _really_ need the time for the water to do its work." His voice is regretful, but his words are insistent.

"I want...You _need.._." The words are a protest, but one she knows he'll understand. For the first time she's absolutely certain that he gets it completely.

She shudders and tries to regain some of her control. After last night she doesn't want to force him to be the one looking out for them both constantly. The strain takes too much from him. But god, she can't wait for this first mad rush of passion to die down, because she wants to be able to sit with him in quiet moments and just _kiss_ for the joy of kissing without feeling pressured by her own body to push for more. She wants to be able to enjoy the pure comfort of _touch_, the simplicity of it without the entanglements of lust.

She tries to reach that place where it's enough to feel his arms around her and his gentle breath against her neck and shoulder. It means consciously relaxing every muscle in her body, starting over from the beginning when he shifts or tightens his arms around her. It means holding her breath for a moment so that she can breathe in and out in time with him. It also means imagining them fully clothed and in public.

"Easy. _Easy_." Tony's voice in unfortunately not helping, nor is the erection that she can feel pressing up against her butt even in spite of the water. His hands run, ghost-like, up her sides all the way from her neck to her shoulders.

"We might need to separate for a couple of minutes." To her surprise that doesn't earn his agreement, just a gentle chuckle from the man holding her in his arms.

"That's the _last_ thing we should do." And then he's dong the impossible - the unthinkable really - he's leaning her forward, and spreading her thighs just slightly as he carefully repositions her legs. Then she's gasping aloud as he arranges himself so the tip of his shaft is pressing right against her opening.

"You're not helping," she shivers convulsively. "You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to the day when sex isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I look at you."

"You've been on a starvation diet for a while now, Potts. Are you really surprised you're having a hard time not salivating on the food?" Under the water one of his hands comes up to cup her left breast, hefting and squeezing it with just a little more firmness that he's ever used previously. "The trick to this is not constant denial, but it's also not gorging until something breaks." His thumb and forefinger manipulate the nipple. "A regular schedule of meals with the occasional emergency snack is what it will take to restore equilibrium."

She wants to say something witty, or at least sarcastic, in reply. However she's too focused on his hands on her skin to force the words to fall into order inside her mind, much less in her mouth. "Tony..." she whispers, allowing herself to surrender to him for now without making a fuss. She tries to consider it an exercise in caring for him by allowing him to care for her. She knows she's really just giving in to the greed he pulls out of her so easily.

"I made you a promise before I fell asleep," he whispers just before his teeth close around one earlobe. "And I intend to keep it as soon as I can do so without being at risk of drowning. In the meantime though..." He twitches his hips and slides home. A soft whimper passes her lips and she tries to shift her body towards him, but his arms stop her. He's still got one hand cupping her breast and he squeezes it in a warning that makes her flush from top to bottom.

"I won't tell you not to move at all, because that seems a little cruel, but Pepper…you don't get to change positions unless I move you, and you definitely do not get to set the pace or turn around."

She wants to smile, but can't quite work it up. But she nods as she murmurs, "Yes, Tony," and she forces her arms to relax at her sides.

His hips start to rock, incredibly, incredibly slowly.

"Do we need to give you a safe word, or can we consider this an encounter of the more metaphoric variety?" His thumb and finger move to her other nipple and his tongue switches to tracing the line of her neck on the other side of her head.

Beneath the water his arm is still holding on firmly across her belly.

"'Ouch' and 'stop' don't count?" she asks a little faintly. Because she still trusts him not to hurt her, and she knows that if she asks him to stop he would.

"Those two are automatics, even outside the game. If you want one of them to _not_ count, you are going to have to work very, very hard to convince me."

"For now I think they count. We'll see in a couple of months." She tilts her head on her shoulder, allowing him better access to her neck.

"Does it hurt to stretch this far - any tug on your bad shoulder?" His voice is gentle as his hand comes up and his thumb digs in deep to the juncture at the base of her skull, sending tingles flaring in both directions.

She gasps, but in a good way and actually stretches her neck a little bit further just to feel the resistance. The moment she feels the least bit of pain she stops and relaxes a little. "Mostly it just feels stiff and cramped," she says softly. Then she leans forward and presses her good arm against the front of the tub so she can lean on it.

"I'm surprised you're not getting headaches. Your neck is one big knot." He digs his thumb into another spot less than an inch below and she both feels and hears the vertebrae crackle. The action causes shivers that make her tighten around him involuntarily.

"I thought...you said..." Just words are taking all her effort... "That I needed... more time ...in the water...before a massage." She groans as he switches hands again, using the one that had been rubbing her neck to enfold her right hand.

"Your _back_ needs more time," Tony corrects her softly. "But your neck I can handle just fine." Moments later her head drops completely forward, not in protest as because the feel of him is draining all her energy. He chuckles softly and removes the hand that is gripping hers using it to wrap under her breasts and pull her upright against his chest. "Don't want to over stretch the muscles." Then his massaging hand slides up and digs gently into her tresses. "This is starting to look pretty greasy. How about you let me use the sprayer and give you a shampoo while we wait?"

"Okay," she agrees. There's something in allowing him to care for her once she stops fighting. Some need that's filled by his concern and tenderness. Maybe it's just that she's been alone too long. It's been three years since she's even _attempted_ a serious relationship and she's always been a turned off by the idea of physical contact without it.

Tony rewards her acquiescence by digging his fingers deep into her scalp. "It's a good thing that I brought your shampoo from the downstairs bathroom then." He reaches behind him and to his left, sightlessly locating the sprayer. The act causes him to twitch inside her, and she doesn't even try and stop from groaning.

Fifteen seconds later he's adjusting the nozzle one handed, using his teeth to adjust the strength of the water stream. "Do I need to reposition so you can aim better?" Her reluctant offer only makes him tighten his arm ever so slightly around her waist. She smiles and tilts her head back to help keep the water out of her eyes. Not that she really needs to worry; Tony is careful enough for both of them and then some.

His hands in her hair are amazing. She'd read once that the scalp was one of the most sensitive places on the body, and she believes it. Her body is relaxing even as he slowly moves within her. After perhaps thirty seconds her hair is wet enough for shampoo, and Pepper is ready for the smell of ginseng and aloe.

What she is not ready for, however, is for the hand at her middle to suddenly creep down to the triangle of red hair that is at the juncture of her thighs. "Tony?" Her fingers tighten on his legs, but she doesn't try to stop him. "I-I thought..." She's not sure what she'd thought, just that this is a new form of torture.

"Nothing wrong with a little warm up. Something to keep you distracted while we wait." She feels him grin against her good shoulder. "Besides, according to the bottle this shampoo should stay on for at least four more minutes for maximum effect."

"You read the shampoo bottle?" Pepper asks breathlessly as her hips shift side to side restlessly.

He responds by wrapping his unsubmerged arm around her more tightly. "Apply, spread out and rub in thoroughly. Repeat twice if necessary for better results." His hand atop her head does as instructed, and the same time his one down below does the same across the curling locks at her center. "Remind me to check out this salon you frequent, Pepper, it must be pretty kinky if this shampoo is any indication."

And then his thumb brushes across the surface of her clitoris, producing a recognizable but undignified squeak. He teases her for the recommended four minutes, his fingers more than paying her back for what she'd put him through the night before. Though that's probably only her opinion. Pepper's tense and trembling in his arms by the time he reaches for the spray head again. "Head back," he murmurs. "Let's get you rinsed off and over to the bed."

He slides her up and off him as she moans in disbelief. Pepper complies as much as she is capable of it. But then she's also not sure she even steady enough to stand, dry off and walk to the mattress. "Do you have any idea how edible you look right now?" Tony murmurs as he stands, lifting the both of them out of the now cooling water as he does so. "Come on, let's get you toweled off and all stretched out on your tummy where you really belong."

Her eyes fly to his, and she's a little dismayed and a lot turned on to see he's serious. "I don't know...drying me off might be counterproductive," she murmurs because if she doesn't say something she's going to be pleading with him in an embarrassingly short time.

He replies by reaching out one of his palms and digging into the muscles of her back. "Don't worry Potts, you'll have plenty of time to catch up." And then he does the _unforgivable_, he leads her to the bed and presses her down, firmly but insistently, onto her quivering stomach.

Traitorous little bastard that he is, he proceeds to give the massage he's promised, starting at her now loosened neck and going down to her thighs. He intermingles gentle percussion and strong massaging fingertips with frequent but feather light brushes of his lips. "I'm going to hurt you," Pepper mumbles into the bed, though they both know that if it's not a bluff, it's a concern for much later. Right now she's so relaxed she might actually slide off the bed if Tony moves away. And god it feels _good_.

Tony chuckles and kisses her bottom. "On your back, Potts. Need to do the other side." For the first time she hesitates to obey. Because it occurs to her that Tony might actually just be getting started. "Roll over, Pepper." His voice is solemn. He grasps her hip in one hand and tugs on it slightly. She follows the instructions reluctantly, only to find herself greeted by a pair of unbelievably tender eyes. "I'm no pushover, Pepper, but I'm not a sadist. If it ever becomes too much, you just need to _tell me_. Ask me right now and I'll finish up your massage _after_ you've come a couple of times."

She shudders convulsively, then actually caves. "Rain check on the massage would probably be good," she breathes, though her eyes have a hard time leaving his lips. "Though for the record I really do like having you touch me."

Her reward is a grin. "Then I won't disappoint." And he scoots forward to lay on his stomach as he licks his lips.

The last thing she's clearly aware of is the heat of his tongue as it snakes up one thigh.

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Colonol James Rhodes pulls up to the mansion, typing his pass code in at the gate, and trying not to squirm in his seat too anxiously as he listens to the calls from the photographers and "journalists" just on the other side of Tony's property line. From their careful behavior he can only assume that a fair number of them have already been hit with lawsuits for tresspassing. As the gate slowly slides open he checks his watch: 10:30 am. Too late for Tony to be asleep - theoretically - though not too early for him to be out on a mission.

It's also far too late for Pepper to not be answering the phone, unless her injuries are far more severe than the media is reporting. That thought worries him more than most would concieve...

He's more than a little concerned about the state of his friends.

But then again he's had on CNN the better part of the morning.

While there are other things happening in the world, for the most part the journalists in this part of the western hemisphere are all salavating over the press conference to be held five days from now. And along with the speculation goes instant replays of two grainy videos - both of them involving Tony being overwhelmingly protective of Pepper and attacking people on national TV.

Although, to be fair, those videos are the old news. What the stations are playing _now_ are soundclips about the videos made by "experts" in various fields. Mostly psychiatrists.

Those experts want to act like they know impressive amounts of shit about a very tenuous situation. He's pretty much sure that the whole group of them together have produced about one sentance that isn't total crap.

He cruises up to the house and parks so close to the front door that it's about three steps from the car to the front step. His fingers fly over the keypad to the right of the doorknob and he enters without knocking, though he doesn't enter unannounced.

"Tony?" He can hear voices cut off suddenly, then the sound of a chair being pushed back against tile.

"Hey, Rhodey. Be right out." There's a strangled tone in Tony's voice that has the colonel heading towards the kitchen without a second thought. "No, really, I'll be right...there..." Too late. Rhodes is already standing in the entry to the kitchen, and to say he's confused as hell is a bit of an understatement.

Tony's posture is a little defensive as he stands next to the kitchen table dressed in only a pair of oil-stained sweats. There's one plate and two coffee mugs in front of the chair where he must have been sitting. "I came as soon as I heard." As Rhodes shifts his weight, he catches a glimpse of Pepper. He can only guess that she'd deliberately put Tony between herself and the doorway. The bashful look on her face seems to confirm it. She's standing behind the kitchen's island. All Rhodey can see is that she's wearing a button down shirt that's too big for her and a navy blue sling - also too big for her.

"How's the shoulder?" Rhodes asks, as his first thought is that she must be wearing one of Tony's shirts to keep from confining her injury. "I've heard everything from it's separated to you have a broken collarbone." As he moves around Tony towards her, Pepper inches the other way around the island with a bright but fake smile on her face.

"Well, you know. It's sore. And it only got dislocated. As you can see, I'm already back up on my feet." Her voice is as bright as her smile, but too high for Pepper and she's blushing.

Rhody raises an eyebrow. "You don't need to be embarrassed, Pepper. I've had one of those slings. I'm just surprized Tony was enough of a gentleman to lend you one of his shirts without me pounding on him first."

"Well, you know Tony, always the gentleman... Coffee?" Pepper turns the corner of the island and pretends like her destination had been the coffee pot the whole time. And hell, maybe it had been. But Rhodes can't help but feel like he's fallen into the twilight zone. He narrows his eyes. "Are you supposed to be on your feet this soon?"

Behind him on the other side of the island, Tony snorts. "I would't go there, Rhodey. Pepper's been quite insistant on maintaining as much mobility as possible - I've given up on trying to make her be reasonable about that." Pepper's response is not quite what Rhody expects. She twitches her lips and her face gets even redder ibn a deepening blush.

She clears her throat. "I'm fine. Don't even need any hard narcotics. My shoulder's sprained and I'm a little sore, in a number of places. But I'm doing well enough I intended to get back to work in another five to ten minutes. Tony, why don't you take Rhodey somewhere more comfortable...so you guys can talk?" There is a very obvious hint in Pepper's voice, one that urges Rhodes to dig in his heels.

"What the hell is up with you two?" he asks. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were sleeping together or something." Absolute silence meets that remark, as if both of them are waiting for the other to bluff their way out of this.

It's about that point that Rhody realizes Pepper's not wearing any pants. And there's a hicky the size of Texas on her neck.

He chokes on the coffee he'd picked up from the table. He looks at Tony and then at Pepper, and then back at Tony. He's not sure why he's suddenly so alarmed sort of the fact that Tony..._Tony Stark _is actually _blushing_...

"I...you..._No._ I refuse to believe this." He looks at Pepper in sheer disbelief. "I...Pepper, are you _insane_? Do you have a concussion that they didn't mention? Because him I can almost buy pulling something like this...though I'm going to have to beat his face in. But you...?" He can only shake his head.

-where this part will spit on livejournal-

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" she demands, flattening her good hand against the counter. From the sudden light in her eye, it looks like it might be out of a desire not to chuck something at his head. "I'll have you know that _I_ was the one who insisted that Tony sleep with _me_."

Rhodey shakes his head. "I just expected better..out of both of you I guess." He shakes his head. "I'm gone a _week_..and what? You give up ignoring ten years of sexual tension." He turns accusing eyes on Tony. "She's got a _dislocated shoulder_, man. I just hope you've managed to curb you more acrobatic tendencies in bed."

"Don't you dare," Pepper warns Tony, eyes still on Rhodes and it's to the colonel that she addresses her next words. "Either you calm down, or you get out. Because this is entirely my doing. I didn't give Tony much of a choice." Pepper speaks with the fervency of a woman defending someone she loves dearly.

"Yeah, Potts. You tied me to the bed. Thanks for that reaffirmation of my dignity." Tony's voice is dry, but his voice is much too low. "Rhodey, I'm going down to the shop, where I'm going to pretend you don't deserve to get punched. Unless you want to piss off Pepper even more I suggest that you shut up and follow me."

Rhodey carefully edges around Pepper, mindful to keep his eyes respectfully above her shoulders and away from the hickie on her neck. He really doesn't feel like getting thrown out of the house, and despite her injuries, he's pretty sure Pepper could manage it if she felt the need to. And there's no way he's leaving until he's had a chance to chew Tony out for his insensitive and selfish behavior.

The trip to the basement is uncomfortable but silent. Tony doesn't say anything at all until the doors swing shut behind them. And then he turns and clocks Colonel James Rhodes right in the middle of his nose.

So Rhodes does the reasonable thing and punches Tony right back, catching him under the jaw before he reaches for his own nose to stem the trickle of blood he can feel flowing over his lips. "Damnit! What was that for?" Tony hadn't actually hit him for years now, and that last time had been an exception. There wasn't much reasoning to be done with a drunk mourning the 20th anniversary of his parents' death. Then the ass-kicking they'd handed each other had almost been a relief.

Tony growls right into his face. "You just _humiliated_ her Rhody. What in hell were you _thinking_?!"

"Me? I was _standing up _for her," Rhodes counters. "If you wanted to keep her from being humiliated, maybe you shouldn't have slept with her, Tony!" That earns him another attempted punch to the nose, which this time he deflects sucessfully. "Or what, Stark..? You're telling me you're ready to change your stripes? Because I thought our old deal all those years ago was that you'd sleep with Pepper Potts the same day you were ready to give all the other women up and marry her as well."

"What makes you think I'm not going to?" Tony demands hotly.

Rhodey gapes. "Okay, you may both have taken blows to the head - because that ain't the man I shook hands with all those years ago talking. How did I have to put it then to get the point across? Something like 'She's a good friend and she's put up with_ loads _of your shit and I ain't looking to see you fuck it all up after she leaves, much less have to try and be awkward friends to both of you, after. I hate being stuck in the middle. So unless you reach a point where you're willing to marry her don't even think about it. Cause some things are worth more in life than sex.' if I recall."

Tony nods. "Yes they are. Not that you fucking have the right to _know_ that at his point."

"Then explain it to me, Tony. Because if you don't have a really good explanation for any of this, I'm still going to beat the shit out of you. She's _hurt_."

"I _know _that!" Tony spits back. "_No one_ here knows that better than me!"

Rhodes goes over and collapses on the sofa, still touching his nose gingerly to check for blood. "Would you just start explaining from the beginning? All I know is that you went batshit crazy on some photographer, Pepper got hurt in the middle of it somehow, and there's a press conference on Thursday."

Tony sighs. "She got knocked into by a reporter who was too stupid to respect the barrier - he got shoved over it and into Pepper, and she dislocated her shoulder." He shakes his head. "I...I don't really remember much but the way that she screamed."

"Okay, so Pepper got hurt and _then_ you went batshit crazy. That makes more sense. Doesn't explain why you're sleeping with her though."

"She needed it," Tony says simply. "And that's all the answer you get. Some things, Rhodey just aren't any of your damn business."

"She needed it - in her opinion or yours?" Rhodes repeats flatly. "Tony, you haven't convinced me you're not taking advantage of her."

"I'm not going to be able to either." Tony sighs as he exhales deeply. "Not without sharing information that is not mine to tell." He shrugs a little bit and drops his head, motioning Rhodey in his general direction. "Let's save some time if you insist. Just go ahead and hit me if it make you feel so much better."

"You know I'm not going to beat the shit out of you," the colonel mutters. "For one thing, Pepper would kick my ass if I did. For another...damn it man, she's in _love_ with you. And I think that's what I'm pissed off about most. How long do you really think this is going to last, man?"

Tony shrugs. "That's her call, Rhodey. Right now she's the one who gets to call the shots as long as it doesn't personally jeopardize her safety."

"And if it does?" Rhody raises an eyebrow. The look Tony shoots back leaves very little to speculation. Rhodey sighs. "You're unbelievably _fucked up_, just to be clear for the record." They sit in silence for a few minutes, both pondering their own thoughts. Then Rhodey turns his head to look at Tony. "This is really her choice. No coercion from you." They're statements, not questions, implying that there's only one correct answer.

"Have you ever tried to coerce Pepper into anything? Much less put a hold on her when there's something she wants to do?"

Rhodey watches as Tony Stark shakes his head in rueful amusement, and feels something heavy knot inside his stomach. Because looking at Tony's face he's left with two very specific realities. Tony Stark is officially insanely in love, and Pepper Potts isn't the only one he has to worry about anymore.. "I'd better be planning my toast for the wedding soon," he grumbles under his breath before he thinks back over their conversation. "You said something about Pepper's safety. Is there cause for concern there?"

Tony walks over to one of the computers, punches in a numeric sequences of keys. A few seconds later something pops up on the screen. "She hasn't seen all of these. Just the first batch of photos." They he turns and deliberately crosses the room to go work on his suit. Rhodes suspects something of what he's going to see before he even gets to his feet...which takes awhile. The bland look on Tony's face is one he's come to respect and stear clear of for the most part. If he's wearing it now, and it's connected to Pepper, and he's head over heels for Pepper...

'Well, shit.' Rhodes had been looking forward to some R&R time after coming back from overseas, and it's starting to look like he isn't going to get it.

He makes it to the computer. Even manages to browse through half the file Tony called up before he decides he really doesn't need to see anymore. The images on the screen leave him feeling sick and filthy, and all he can think is that even if the love thing is temporary between these two, it's probably all that's keeping either of them sane at the moment.

He turns to face the man at his workbench. "Tony, you know I'm behind you. I've got the backs of both of you."

Tony nods and actually seems to slump a little in relief. "I'm glad you're here," he admits after a moment. "It means we can set a guard and still occasionally get some kind of sleep." Tony chuckles then, only the sound isn't remotely funny. "She won't go to a safehouse...and at this point this shit has her so fucking terrified I can't bring myself to force the issue." He shrugs. "I'm thinking the next logical step is going to be to microchip her, in case the worst happens. I figure you can help me with that argument or at least hold her down."

"Your house isn't safe?" Rhodes asks skeptically. "Between Jarvis and, well, let's see - _the suit_? - I'm thinking this is a pretty good place for her to be."

Before Tony can reply Jarvis's voice cuts through the silence. "Mr Stark, I suggest you come upstairs immediately. There seems to be a virus invading sevral of our systems and I'm afraid the results are proving fairly unhealthy to Ms Potts's state of mind."

Tony is across the garage almost before Rhodes can even process what Jarvis had said. But he's right behind his friend as Tony takes the stairs two at a time, calling for Pepper the entire time. When they reach the ground floor they can hear a distorted voice coming from the back of the house, where Pepper's office is, and they both take off running. As they get closer they can start to make out words. "...slut, fucking him like that. Don't think I haven't seen every way you've touched him with your filthy hands." The voice is getting louder and Rhodes realizes it's because other speakers throughout the house are coming to life, feeding through the same audio. If Jarvis hadn't alerted them, they would have known about this soon enough.

They reach her office. Rhodes notices a pile of electoric rubble on the floor by the door, and then he gets one momentarily paralyzing glimpse of Pepper standing over what must be the remains of her desk phone before Tony's got her in his arms, one wrapped tight around her waist and the other holding her head to his chest as if he's doing all he can to block the sound of that mechanical, droning, unemotional voice that's explaining exactly why she needs to die.

The engineer speaks tightly. "Jarvis, shut down all power but your unattached generator and servers. Purge the system and then start a full re-installation."

"Affirmative, sir. Please make sure that you avoid any contact screens until I okay it. I'm reading power fluctuations in several of the touch pads that I can't yet explain."

Pepper meanwhile is literally shaking. "Something _shocked_ me," she murmurs after several seconds. "Tony, how in hell? I thought that this system has surge protectors."

"It does." Tony informs her softly, his arm tightening around her even more. "If the circuits weren't manually set to switch off at a certain voltage..." Tony shudders at the implications and glances at Rhodey, unable to finish the sentence.

Rhodey just nods, understanding implicitly what's going on. "What do you want me to do? Is there someone that needs to be called? Do you want techs in here? Police?" Whatever's necessary he'll do. It's Pepper's job, technically, but she's at the heart of this and in no state to be doing anything. He doubts even Tony is in any shape to chase after shadows in the coding that flows in and out of this house.

"I was just checking the messages on my phone," Pepper says, not quite tracking the conversation, though who could blame her? "James got me thinking that maybe there were more people who hadn't gotten through, and then Jarvis told me that you'd ordered all calls routed to the answering service, so I decided to start filtering. There were four unfamiliar numbers not registered with our server. This one was number two..."

"What time was it listed for?" Tony asks a little breathlessly. He's hoping that the information can be used to start building a time table of when the infiltration first entered their system.

"Twenty minutes ago. Tony, look at my Blackberry screen." The words are whisper soft, carefully stated and said with such forced calm that Tony feels his stomach physically sink. He picks up the phone he hadn't even noticed was lying on the floor till this moment and see something so impossible it makes him want to gag.

The screen is cracked but there's still a recognizable image on the display. It's a picture of them on the balcony the day before. Pepper's mostly hidden by his body, but it's still pretty clear that he's got one hand between her legs and she's loving it. Except as he watches, some sort of superimposed animation loop starts, the motion jerky and slow like an old video game. It's still pretty clear that it's supposed to be blood sliding off the bench Pepper's laying on.

Tony slides the broken phone into his pocket without offering it to Rhodes. Then he just turns to his friend and says, "Call the police immediately. And then I want all the top tier IT guys from the company to start running all the code coming into this house until they find something. Jarvis will give them remote monitored access only until I say otherwise."

"Is it _safe_ to stay here?" Pepper shivers as she looks around the room again. "Maybe we're better to find a hotel or go back to my apartment. Somewhere not quite to mechanized until this is over."

Tony growls deep in his throat, and Pepper just shivers a little more at the sound. "We're not going _anywhere_ until I can be one hundred percent certain that you'd be safer there than you are here." His arms tighten around her enough that she squirms in discomfort as he presses on muscles that are still tender and sore.

"I'm fine." Her fingers curl against his skin when his grip loosens. "Just don't let go."

Rhodey interjects, trying hard not to feel like he's intruding in something private. "Look, can't we use this to catch who's ever done this...I mean I assume the purge will remove any virus back to a pre-established 'safe time' and that means the hacker will have to try again...or at least wait for the virus to spread again even if it is in the backup..."

"And this time Jarvis and I will know to be looking." Tony nods. "This person is an idiot. Who ever it was couldn't use the system to do more than try and scare the shit out of us. They've blown it big time though, because now that we know they're in our system, we can use their damn code to track them.

Pepper meanwhile is finally starting to calm. She whacks herself in the forehead with her good hand. "God I am such a total baby, too - getting freaked out by speakers and monitor screens."

Well okay there had been the shock, but that had caught her off guard more than it had caused any literal harm.

Tony's eyes narrow. "You were unexpectedly _attacked_, Pepper. In a house with the most advanced security system on the planet. Beat yourself up another time, when you're not in pain and still healing. Right now Rhodey's going to call IT, and you and I are going to go upstairs and get your pain meds into you."

Pepper actually wilts, something Rhodey's never seen before. "Half dose," she says half-heartedly, like she knows she's going to be turned down. He gathers that her meds don't agree with her completely.

Tony contemplates a moment, before sinking his nose into her hair. "Toradol and Flexeril instead of Vicodin if you promise to stay put at least two hours." Then he pulls back just a little and presses his lips to her forehead. "It'll take almost that long for Jarvis to do the reboot anyway. Take a nap until there's something more substansive for all of us to do."

The lights flicker off as he says that, causing Pepper to shiver and take an impossible step closer to Tony. The emergency lights that are powered by Jarvis's backup generator come on a second after that, but they don't help her peace of mind much. The artificial yellow glow is somehow alien and discomforting. "Will the power come back on before then?" she asks softly, trying not to look around an office she doesn't recognize at the moment.

Tony's reaction is to shrug and look down at his chest. "Look on the bright side, Pepper. Your...boss comes with a built in night light." He looks across the room at Rhodey. "Get over here and stick close. We'll have to be careful but I think if we all three keep close we can managed not to trip on our way to the supply cabinet in the basement."

"Supply cabinet?" Rhody asks cautiously, moving toward the still tight clasped couple with a slightly raised eyebrow. "You're telling me in a house this big you only keep an emergency backup light source in the fucking cave that you've got set up down below?"

"Yes." Pepper actually starts snickering. "_I_ on the other hand laid up a supply of both flashlights and candles on every single floor."

Tony blinks and she raises an eyebrow. "_What?! _You know the hours I keep when you create your usual chaos, and _I_ as a rule don't spend all that much time in the basement."

Looking at them both Rhodey realizes something important: if his friends are indeed having sex, it really hasn't changed anything. Rather, it's emphasized things that have always been there. Pepper's always stayed close to Tony; now she's in his arms. Tony's always been a little possessive of Pepper and her time; now he's almost overwhelmingly protective.

The snark is the same, but there's a little extra edge from both sides, one that speaks of a new comfort between the participants.

He doesn't say any of this, because it's not the time or the place, and he's not drunk for one thing. Because this is only something guys share with each other - not the woman involved - after a lot of alcohol has been consumed. Instead he goes to the small cabinet that Pepper leads them to and pulls out three flashlights. They're lightweight plastic, but better than nothing he supposes.

He also decides that, circumstances being what they are, he needs to get Pepper a Mag Light. He hands out the flashlights and then passes out the candles, pausing a moment to consider how evil he wants to be to Tony.

'The man blew up one of my planes,' he thinks after a moment, and then raises an eyebrow and Tony before gesturing to Pepper. "It looks like you were wrong Tony, sex _doesn't _apparently make her less mouthy out of bed."

Tony stares at him in what is identified as purely comical betrayed disbelief. Pepper glares first at Tony, then at Rhodes, then back at Tony again. She meets his panicked gaze, debating... Yeah, she's totally going to say it. "I thought you preferred me...mouthy." Her tone leaves little doubt about what she means and she's pretty sure that if there'd been enough light in the room, she would have had the pleasure of watching James Rhodes blush.

"I never said that...!" Tony squeaks in disbelief... "What _he_ said..." He says pointing at Rhodey.

"November 2001. New Year's Eve party. Pepper was in that hot little cocktail dress that had you sweating profusely and crossing your eyes every time she came in the room."

"I think I remember that party," Pepper agrees. She watches Tony, willing him to get it. 'Mouthy,' for god's sake. The man is dense as a log sometimes, especially considering where her mouth had been last night.

The she frowns. "Cocktail dress? I don't own one, Rhodey. I think you probably have me mixed up with someone else."

"Like hell." Tony says with fervor. "It was a white and blue dress with a fitted skirt and all these little crossing white straps in the front...that showed a lot more than I was used to seeing." He gestures to her breast area with carefully cupped hands. "You had like a ton of these perfect little freckles..."

Rhody chuckes at the description. "A little tip for you, Pepper. If you want to mess with a guy's head and he's regularly hanging out with half naked women, there is nothing in the world quite as tempting as the occasionally revealed glimpe of otherwise covered skin."

Now it's Pepper's turn to be confused. "Why would I have wanted to mess with Tony's head then? On that particular day what I really wanted was to kill him. Annoying pair of twin brunnettes," she informs Tony for the sake of clarification.

"I'm not talking about then. I'm talking about for future reference And at this point I'm officially pulling outta this conversation...before I end up needing therapy. Because the thought of you two together is sorta like an image of my Grandma buck naked. I can handle it as long as I don't need to think about it."

"Hear that, Tony? You just got compared to someone's grandma."

"I'm going to strangle you both, I think," Tony informs them archly as he heads back to the stairway. "And Rhodey, yes you're right." He winks at Pepper over his shoulder. "I'm happy to say that when she puts her mind to it, Pepper here can be incredibly, _incredibly_ 'mouthy.'"

Pepper smiles smugly as she hurries to catch up. She's got a pretty good hold on herself right now, but she doesn't want him out of sight either. "Where are you going?"

"We're all going up to my bedroom. And one we get there you are taking your meds and going to sleep."

"What - no stop in the Jacuzzi?" Pepper asks him archly.

"Grandma," Rhodey murmers from somewhere behind.

"Suck it up, Rhodes." Pepper's got her eyes on Tony's shoulders. He's not looking at her, which makes it hard to argue that she doesn't want to be alone, not even in a room that would have the advantage of lots of natural lighting.

Besides, she is a little suspicious of the views those windows provide these days. With good reason. "Where are you going to be," she asks. Because if he says his garage or something, she can totally crash on the couch down there instead.

"I am going to be the same place as you are until you fall asleep." He shrugs. "Not much else to do until Jarvis says it's safe. Rhodey here is going to handle the call while I start making a few of my own. There are only so many people in the world who can handle a hack like this. It narrows our suspect list down considerably."

"I'd better _still_ be in the same place as you even after I fall asleep," Pepper grumbles. "I don't want to wake up alone. I don't like it. You get _up_ to things while I'm asleep."

Rhodey snorts. "Don't worry about it, Pepper. Crash out and I promise that I'll babysit. I'll keep him out of trouble until you get back from la-la land."

He doesn't tell Pepper what he and Tony both know: that for the foreseeable future she's not going to _get_ to be left alone until this bastard is caught. 'You owe me for this, Stark.' "Pepper I think you should let us fit you with a microchip."


	9. Chapter 9

After Rhodes's initial suggestion that she be fitted with a microchip in case the worse should happen – which Pepper was completely sure was Tony's idea – she'd managed to put both men off long enough for Tony to push her meds on her and thankfully they'd both given up on trying to convince her once she'd gotten drowsy. They hadn't liked her complete refusal to discuss the subject after her noncommittal "Is that so?" but there hadn't been much they could do. It was something Pepper needed time to think about – _without _constant badgering.

However, when she wakes up from her prescription inspired nap an untold number of hours later, her mind is too groggy to do any serious thinking about anything. So she rolls over in the bed, a little unsure of how she's gotten there, and groans because the spot beside her is depressingly empty...

"Hey there, take it easy." An unfamiliar pair of hands help to ease her into a sitting position and Pepper rubs at her eyes as she sees not Tony, but Rhodey sitting in a chair at the bedside.

Which figured because if Tony were here he would be in the bed with her…or at least on top of the blankets.

"No offense, but you're really not who I wanted to see," she whispers. "I need something to drink. I feel really dry." She hates the disconnected feeling of waking up in an unfamiliar bed.

'Not that Tony's bed is that unfamiliar,' she acknowledges wryly. 'I suppose it's just strange to be in it when he's _not_.'

Rhodey meanwhile is nodding in understanding, helping set a pillow behind her to support her slightly achy back. "Tell me what you want and I'll go and get it. Tony's down in his shop talking coding with Jarvis - or he was. He's fine – though you're not the only one seriously spooked by this whole stalker thing, apparently." Rhodey's smile is amiable but just a little bit tight. Like he's not really sure what is and isn't safe to say to her at the moment.

She frowns a little as she watches him make a hasty retreat. "Water please," she calls after him as she tries to wiggle into a more comfortable position. "Jarvis, can you turn on CNN for me?" She needs something concrete to tie her back to the present.

Jarvis complies without pause. "Welcome back to the waking world, Ms Potts." On screen, the anchors on CNN are currently speculating at the large number of police and security cars that have been and gone from the normally secluded Stark mansion. She frowns as she realizes she hasn't seen or heard any indication of anyone else in the house since she first fell asleep.

"Jarvis, is there anyone besides Tony, Col. Rhodes, and myself in the house right now?"

"Negative, Ma'am. With the exception of Happy, everyone else left nearly an hour ago."

She blinks. "Jarvis, exactly how long was I actually _asleep_?"

"Five hours and forty seven minutes, twenty three seconds," the AI recites. "It seems your body is still recovering from the stress of your dislocated shoulder. The resources I have looked at suggest you don't push yourself and should incorporate naps into your daily schedule until your body adjusts. The fact you slept as long as you did is only indication you may be asking too much of a still healing body."

"I didn't know that doctors made house calls any more," Pepper says under her breath while she focuses back on the TV screen. "Jarvis, from now on, please TiVo anything concerning Mr. Stark that appears on the major news networks. I'm way behind where I should be on this. I'd like to have _some_ clue of what people have been saying before the press conference at the end of the week."

"I've already started archiving pending your expected request to do just that. The files are on drive K: whenever you're ready to view them."

"Can you just pull them up and put them on the TV in here for me?" She doesn't quite feel up to getting out of bed yet.

"Affirmative, please just give me some clue as to how you want them organized for viewing."

Pepper thinks about that. "First by priority of persons mentioned as relating to the structure of Tony's business, then by length. Longest first, please." She wants to know if the board has weighed in on this latest fiasco yet or if they're keeping their traps shut in a bid to control the damage as much as possible. She also wants to know if any Stark Industries employees have chosen to speak out against orders.

She's fully prepared to bust some balls before the interview if she has to.

"Very well, but please proceed with caution. If you break another laptop, Mr. Stark will inevitably blame me. Give me five minutes to arrange as you're requested and you should be good to view the playback."

"Break another laptop?" comes a confused voice from the doorway. She turns her head to see Rhodey standing inside the doorway. "Okay somebody's gotta explain the context of that one to me.."

"I'm sure Jarvis can explain it. Later. So are you basically stuck babysitting me?"

Rhodey raises an eyebrow. "I'm keeping an eye on an injured friend who may be unable to defend herself at the moment."

"Babysitting." Pepper concludes sardonically. "You do know I am a fully functional adult."

"It's not you I'm doing it for. Well at least I'm not doing it just for you. If you want to look at it that way, Pepper, that's your business, but I prefer to think of it as keeping one friend in charming company while easing another friend's mind.

Pepper groans and closes her eyes at the small amount of hurt in Rhodey's voice. "Ignore me, Rhodes. Prescription medications and I do not get along well. I get kind of cranky."

"Yeah well, from what I've seen Tony hasn't exactly made this the easiest week for you."

She frowns at the harshness of the statement. "Hey, don't blame this all on Tony. It's not his fault some idiot dislocated my shoulder. Besides, I think I slept straight through the first two days except for when he woke me up to eat something and take more pills. He took good care of me."

He's been doing nothing but take care of her since this whole mess first started.

Rhodey though, looks less convinced; he leans back in his chair and studies her frankly. "What - you don't think he over-reacted, just a little at least?" The colonel looks at her with one eyebrow raised as he hands her the glass he's brought with him.

The water is cool and pleasant against her tongue. She drinks deeply before answering. "Of course he did. Tony always overreacts. That's just what he_ does_." She takes another long drink of water before continuing. "But I'm not mad at him even if his habit of attacking sleezy photographers is getting a little annoying."

"The second attack I don't have any issue with. Hell, I would have helped him if I'd been around."

Pepper groans. "Not you too."

"What?" Rhodey says with a small smile. "Nobody talks to a lady like that without consequences. Especially when she's already injured and can't properly defend her good name."

"Then you're an idiot too. Because that was _exactly_ the response he was looking for. He just underestimated how hard Tony was going to hit him. I take it that Tony told you all about the second incident in the parking garage?" There's a list of files ready to be watched scrolling across the TV display, but Pepper ignores it for now. "Didn't you two have better things to do than gossip like little girls while I was asleep and the house was crawling with police?"

"I didn't hear it from Tony. I saw it on YouTube. And I stayed with you while Tony and Happy dealt with Stark Security and the gaggle of arriving police." Rhodey seems to consider her chastisement further. "You know you're probably right: I wouldn't have hit him right then, it wasn't a safely secured perimeter. For one thing if there was a real fight there was only him and Happy and doing it while you were there was dumb when you were already injured..."

Pepper rolls her eyes. "I'm sure Happy would have gotten me inside before going back to get Tony out of that mess. Tell me why there were police here. Have charges been pressed for either of the other two incidences?"

"No. From what it sounds like, Stark legal has agreed to settle both claims. The men involved will get certain settlements in exchange for complete silence and agreement of no further attempts to profit on other gratuities..."

'I bet Tony's pissed about that.' "You still haven't answered my question, if not for a court summons, why were the police even here?"

Rhodey shifts, obviously uncomfortable, and for one moment she nearly considers throwing the pillow beside her at his head, but than the other man shrugs and continues explaining. "Well your stalker problem is a matter of public record, now Potts. To not inform the police what happened would have been impeding a now federal investigation." Rhodey takes the glass once it's drained. "So - you feeling up for something more to drink? Or if you like I can even carry you downstairs and get you something to eat."

"Not hungry," she murmurs as she considers the implications of his words. "The media's picked this up, haven't they? If this is a matter of public record, and they're already all over Tony like white on rice, then they must be reporting on this too."

Rhodey nods, "Yes, though ironically, the latest news is actually earning him some credit.

Pepper's forehead wrinkles at that, "What do you mean?"

Rhodey shrugs, "Well the press knows you have a stalker, but they don't know how long he or she has been around. And since the police and Stark security aren't releasing that information, they're all assuming that this was a known factor influencing Tony before the initial attack..."

Pepper blinks. "They think he was protecting me from a potential stalker?"

Rhodey nods. "Yes and the people in PR are not dissuading them of the notion, not when it works to our benefit. After all, before he was just a nut case randomly attacking people who made honest mistakes. Now though he's just a C.E.O. who is taking an above average amount of interest in the safety of his favorite employee."

"And Tony knows all this – the way that the media is presenting it?" She's starting to get a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about this whole scenario. Considering how much Tony already blames himself for her being stalked in the first place she doesn't know how well he's going to react to the media presenting him as a hero under these circumstances.

"He saw the news yeah, and spent a hour on the phone with the people in PR. He's not happy but he hasn't yelled. Mostly he just got really quiet afterwards before he started looking at coding. Frankly I think he should be more concerned how the police found out about this stalker in the first place..."

"Oh god," she moans as she automatically tries to get out of bed. Her only real thought right now is to go see Tony. He doesn't need to be alone any more than she does with all this crap.

She wonders how much more negative karma either of them can take before one of them flips out again..

When she stands, it takes a good ten seconds for the room to stop swimming. And she realizes at that moment that she probably should have taken that second glass of water.

"Hey...Easy there already. If you fall on your butt, Pepper, Tony's going to kill me."

Rhodey's wrapped both his palms around her upper arms, providing needed stabilization. She drops her head to her chest and waits to be not-dizzy. "Where are you going anyway?" Rhodes quizzes her as he shifts his grip slightly to support more of her weight. "Didn't I already tell you that Tony's fine?" He eases her into the chair beside the bed, which is a step up from the mattress she has to admit.

She forces herself to breathe in and then out deeply until the spinning subsides.

"I need to see him. You have no idea what this has been like for him." Sitting helps clear her head a little. "Frankly, this whole thing has been nightmarish, and I've only been conscious for half of it. I don't like leaving him to stew..."

"Tony's _fine_," Rhodey says again after a moment. "He's not brooding, he's working. You know as well as I do that for him there's nothing in the world more therapeutic than a project to sink his teeth into."

He shakes his head and helps her to stand up, this time much, much more carefully. "He's got something he can do now that is definitely useful, which is ten times better than sitting up here just watching you sleep and waiting for the next bad thing. If you really want to help him, I suggest you take it easy yourself. Because right now he's so worried about you that I can't even get him to stop long enough to sleep."

"We can slip some of my pills into his next cup of coffee," Pepper suggests.

Rhodey snorts. "Don't tempt me. Right now he trusts us both. I suggest we not mess with the recipe by giving him room to doubt that decision."

Pepper laughs a little. "Okay, let's go take care of me so that I can go take care of him. Because he's not going to listen to a word I say if I'm all wobbly. Besides, I'm hungry since my breakfast got interrupted."

"Wouldn't have been if I'd had any warning," Rhodey grumbles. "Talk about things that I _didn't_ need to see..."

"We were both decent," she scoffs. "Besides, Tony _did_ try to warn you. What did you want him to say? 'Don't come in, I've got a half-dressed Pepper in my lap?'"

"A little directness would have been nice. I'm gonna have to scrub out my eyes. This whole week has been a trip right into the twilight zone. I mean talk about the impossible became probable with no warning at all."

"Oh come on, you didn't see anything worse than my knees. It's not my fault you've got a dirty mind. In fact, I would blame a great deal of that on Tony, personally. And _'impossible?'_ Don't you think that's a _little_ fatalist Rhodey?"

"I'm not talking about you two having a fling, Pepper. Hell it's what I've halfway always expected since the day Tony introduced me to you. I've seen the chemistry you two have between you, and lately things have been incredibly stressful. Under the circumstances if you two had decided to get hot and heavy one night I would have been pissed, but I would have understood and probably adapted a little bit better." Rhodey shakes his head. "This though is _different_. I gave up years ago on Tony ever getting his head out of his ass. I certainly never thought you'd ever figure out that he is and always has been halfway in love with you."

"Always has been?' she questions softly. "Always? Forgive me if I don't think so."

"Probably from the first month he hired you. Certainly from the day you officially outlasted all of hi other P.A's." Rhodey shakes his head. "You stuck around, Pepper. I don't think you know what that equates to for Tony. I've known for almost five years now that he's definitely in love with you."

Pepper decides that it's best to keep her opinion of his sanity to herself. "Well, you've always been an optimist, James, I'll say that much."

He laughs. "And you might not read him quite as well as you think you do, Pepper. Just because he may not have recognized it or had a healthy way to show it Pepper, doesn't mean it wasn't there. And for the record, the fact he that never acted on your obvious attraction only proved he had some grasp on unselfish motivation."

Pepper cuts him off, not sure she wants to hear anymore. "That he never acted on it seemed to prove that he wasn't as much interested as he was reacting out of habit." Pepper slides into a chair at the kitchen table with relief.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Rhodey heads over to the refrigerator and opens the door, locating some bread and what's left of the cheese.

"It means he noticed I was a woman and so he was just doing what came naturally...up to a point. I just thought my value to him as a co-worker was more important than as a lover. It's not as if there wasn't a shortage of those."

"Pepper, you've meant something to him that surpassed other women for years. If you didn't he wouldn't have always been so damn protective of you. I mean look at the steps he took in your crappy neighborhood."

"What are you talking about now? What does my neighborhood have to do with anything?"

Rhodey blinks. "Ah shit, you never found out. And now he's going to_ kill _me..."

Pepper shakes her head. "No, it's fine. Don't betray any confidences on my part. I'll ask him first and see what I get." Although she already has her suspicions. Several of the buildings around hers have undergone extensive renovations in the past few years, all of them bought out one after another as the owners either got too old, or too lazy to keep them up themselves. There is also the neighborhood watch and the new charter school down the street, which have greatly improved the police presence in a once neglected neighborhood.

She and Tony have only ever had one real argument. He'd disliked the location of her apartment, claiming it was too long a commute after the one time he'd visited her there. Now though, she has to wonder if perhaps his main concern had been something else entirely.

She looks up as Rhodey sets a grilled cheese sandwich in front of her, and she really looks at him for the first time. "Your eyes have circles under them that weren't there before," she accuses.

"Yeah well it's been long couple of days, and a rough flight back to the states."

"Tony punched you when you guys went down to the lab, didn't he?"

Rhodey does a very poor job looking innocent. "What happens between a pair of guys in a basement is just between them..." Then he pauses and winces. "Okay, that was not what I meant."

"I assumed you meant in a 'I'm going to pound the shit out of you for insulting my woman' way," Pepper says with a roll of her eyes. "Remember who we're talking about here."

"A guy who, in all essence, is my annoying brother. Except I can't regularly beat on him because the annoying little shit has kind of grown on me."

"You hit him back?" Pepper asks, just to confirm what she already suspects.

"I might have," James Rhodes confirms grudgingly.

"I don't blame you." Pepper picks up the sandwich and takes a bite out of it.

"The man was right about one thing. I was outta line." It's the closet Pepper suspects she's going to get to an apology. "It's just that you're both my friends...and have been for years of my life. If things go south between you I'd hate to see things get awkward."

"You're already making contingency plans if we break up?" she asks without looking at him. "Seems a little premature. We've only been together for two days."

"Yeah well, forgive me if I'm a little worried for Tony." The statement is not quite what she had expected. She's used to people warning others off from Tony, not warning him off from her.

"So am I," she admits softly before she takes another bite. Tony's...well, he's characteristically thrown himself headfirst into this relationship, has thrown everything he has and everything he is into the ring without a second thought.

And she's got someone trying to _kill_ her.

If anything happens to her, even if she only gets injured and doesn't actually die? Well, she's not sure if she'd be able to fix them after that, if he takes it as a personal failure.

So yeah, she's worried about Tony too.

"He...he's not too good at connecting with people. I hope you get that. And he's bound to royally fuck up once or twice. He hasn't ever had what really passes for a normal life." Rhodey smiles at her a little tightly. "Just promise me one thing, that you'll stick to judging his motivations and not just what he does. Because you and I both know his actions, and well the man's an absolute _asshole _most of the time."

Pepper smiles in spite of herself. "You're preaching to the choir here, Rhodes. I've been working for the man for seven years. I know all about actions vs. motivations. My concerns are a bit more...immediate. Like how to handle the mess we're in in a way that won't tear him apart."

"Then tell me what needs to be done, from your perspective. 'Cause you've always had a more broad view of things than he does." Rhodey's voice is calm and matter of fact, and if there's any more doubts in his head he's given up on voicing them.

"I'm just concerned that if...well, not even Tony can be everywhere at once. I mean, you've seen how he's reacted to seeing his weapons used for purposes other than what he had in mind when he designed them. And I understand his need to fix that. And I get that he needs to be able to fix this. But maybe...it's too much to deal with all at once." She picks at the crust on her bread. "Maybe there's nothing he can do to fix this. I'm worried about what might happen if...he can't." Pepper knows that talking around her own possible death might seem crazy, but Rhodes, being a military man, has to at least understand where she's coming from. She doesn't even want to try with Tony. That'll just lead them to panicky sex and she won't raise the subject again.

"Pepper, with all respect I don't think there's going to be that much conflict between you and the suit. Until this stalker is caught I pretty much doubt Tony's going to be going anywhere." Rhodey doesn't say that no man tries to put out his neighbors house when his own is on fire.

"What if that's the wrong place for him to be?" Pepper asks a little carefully. "Rhodey, I don't want him to...to see me die, if he can't stop it..."

"This isn't about being right or wrong. This is about not being totally helpless. This is about not being woken up in the dead of night with a phone call, like he was at MIT."

Pepper freezes for a moment as his words sink in. For a moment she'd been about to ask what he's talking about before her mind actually kicks into gear and supplies the necessary information.

His parents. Their accident. Tony not knowing until hours later... Tony being helpless to _stop_ it.

Tony being reduced to a spectator, like he had been the other day at the PR meeting. And she wonders why the way they'd acted had caused such a furious response.

"Oh _shit_," she moans as she starts to gently bang her head against the table. "I hadn't even taken that into consideration. I'm such an _idiot_ -"

"You don't; even know the worst of it, Pepper." Rhodey leans forward a little, glancing at the closed basement door before speaking in what was clearly confidence. "Tony was supposed to be out with them the night they died, and would have been if his dad hadn't been acting like such overbearing jackass. As it was I think he's always felt halfway cheated. Like he got screwed over by destiny."

Pepper blinks several times. "What do you mean?"

Rhodey shakes his head. "I knew Tony at MIT. He was a skinny little geek who did nothing but work nine hours out of every ten. He was still a kid though, and I'm sorry but no seventeen year old kid can go on indefinitely under that kind of pressure without occasionally screwing up."

Rhodey wrinkles his nose, "His dad though, acted as if he'd committed a felony because his 'genius son' had shown the audacity to blow off two lecture sessions and go to a party one evening resulting in a B- on a single class midterm. 'You're a terrible disappointment,' Rhodey mimics in a supercilious voice Pepper has never heard. "The jerk canceled the long weekend visit Tony had been looking forward to for _months_ in punishment."

That ticks Pepper off in ways she'd never imagined, but it's also irrelevant because there's absolutely nothing she can do about it now. "Look, thanks for the sandwich, James, but I need to go see Tony." She pushes herself up from the table. "I'd tell you to have a good day, but I get the feeling that I'll be seeing you when I come back upstairs."

"I told Tony I'd stick around until he has had at least eight hours sleep," Rhodey informs her calmly. Then he rolls his eyes. "Though I'm beginning to think I should have made it a threat instead of a statement of reassurance with as much grief as he's giving me."

Pepper laughs a little absentmindedly. "You're a good friend to him, Rhodey. I'll see what I can do about getting him to take a nap."

Then Pepper heads for the elevator because she's suddenly very serious about doing everything she can to make Tony feel even the littlest bit better. By the time she steps out onto the basement level she's as prepared as she can be, though she's not entirely what she'll find waiting below.

Tony sitting on his couch surrounded by pages and pages of paper. From the looks of it, he is visually checking through literal _acres _of code.

"Hey you," she says softly, by way of hello. It occurs to her then that she should have brought something down with her for him to eat. Something more substantial than the half empty bag of microwavable popcorn half-buried on the table.

"You're awake." His voice is only half aware, and though he sounds pleased he doesn't pause or look up.

She crosses to stand in front of him and simply studies him for several long moments. She's seen him do this before - well occasionally at least. She knows some people can literally read binary code, but it never fails to amaze her when she catches him doing so. It's not just the fact that he can process these numbers as something meaningful that impresses her, it's also the sheer rate of speed at which he does so.

"Jarvis, are you having any luck?" Tony calls out overhead.

"Negative, sir."

"Well print me the batch you just checked over and I'll give it a second read-through."

Jarvis sounds aggrieved. "Sir, how long do you intend to do this?"

Tony shrugs, "As long as it takes to find our intruder."

"Actually...um, can I talk to you for a minute, Tony?" Pepper stands in front of the couch, hesitant to touch anything. She's not sure which piles are code he's read through, and which is still waiting for him to get to.

"One minute, Pepper...let me finish this stack...easier not to break in the middle of a section." It takes him another two minutes, before he's finally done, but then he sets down the paper and pats his lap. "So how are you feeling? A little bit perkier after your nap?"

"More or less." She takes his invitation, climbing into his lap without a second thought. "We need to get my physical therapist in here eventually. I can't just go skipping appointments left and right. And I know you'd prefer I don't leave the house right now."

"You were due for an appointment today...but we kind of got sidetracked." He frowns. I doubt we can get anyone here by the close of business though." He contemplates a minute. "I can help you with the RoM exercises before bed, though I suggest we get you back in the hot tub first. I'd even offer you another massage, but with Rhodey here...not a good idea to risk temptation. I think though with enough cash in offer we can get a therapist here first thing tomorrow morning."

"That's fine." Pepper pulls a little at the collar of his t-shirt, smoothing it out so that it lies flat against his skin. "Were you serious about the microchip thing?" she asks in a rush, because if Rhodes has suggested that, then Tony has probably been afraid she will turn him down without hearing him out again. But Rhodey has reminded her of something so incredibly important: Tony functions better when he has a problem he can _solve_. So if this was something she can let him do it's worth the trouble...

"I'd like to be able to locate you quickly just in case..." He's truly apologetic over what he knows is an invasion of her privacy. But then he's always walked a fine line when it comes to preserving her safety.

Thankfully she doesn't know some of the more...proactive measures he's taken. He'd really prefer she not think he's a total maniac.

"Is this something you need me to do for you? Because if it is, then of course the answer is yes -"

He snorts, "Pepper, it's something I need you to do for _you_. As a way of preserving your safety and making sure that even if something happens, you'll have the knowledge we're coming to get you." He smiles into her hair. "Hopefully that will be enough to keep you from doing anything that's completely crazy trying to rescue yourself..."

"I'm glad you find the prospect of my self-preservation instincts humorous." She closes her eyes and rests her head against his chest. "Fine. But if I get one comment about vets or stray pets..."

He chuckles. "Pepper, it's not an insult. You're the one who took a pack of S.H.I.E.L.D Agents over the to warehouse even when you couldn't get in touch with me, which took unbelievable guts. I am in no way criticizing your kick-ass potential." His hand drops down to cup her right foot. "Though next time you go off to save the world might I suggest that you at least swap the high heels out for tennis shoes, it'll work better with your Judo."

"My heels are practically a lethal weapon, Tony." His hands are big and warm. "Rhodes is complaining. He says you need to get some sleep."

"Rhodey is a nanny goat. I slept all night. And reading code is not that draining. It's _not_ easier to run in high heels." His hand find the back of her neck and dig into the muscles. "Hmm...we're making progress, fewer knots are returning each time we do this."

He murmurs in pure contentment and settles his head back against the couch cushion behind him as he continues the almost mindless massage.

"My muscle relaxants are still at their peak efficiency." Pepper slides a little to the side, papers rustling as her weight falls on them. But she's still tucked against him and his hand is still moving lazily against her neck.

She wonders, if she lets him do this long enough, if he'll just drift off unintentionally.

"So where did Rhodey hit you?" she asks softly, just to see if he'll even admit they fought.

"Traitorous Judas," he murmurs good naturedly, not actually answering in favor of continuing to stroke her head. But now that Pepper looks she can just make out the swelling on the left side of his face.

She touches it gently. "You should have put ice on this a few hours ago. It might have actually stopped the swelling then. You're going to have a bruise."

He shrugs. "We'll cover it up. It doesn't really hurt. I got distracted by too many other things." His hand pauses a moment, and then he sighs as if he has to tell her something unpleasant. "Pepper, how recently have you turned on the T.V.?"

"Not too recently. But Jarvis has prioritized news reports for me to watch. I figure I'll take it easy and spend the afternoon sorting through them while Rhodes and I tackle my e-mail."

"Some of it is pretty bad..." Tony warns her in advance. "Just remember...no killing anyone on the board, and no making fun of me."

"Why?" she asks suspiciously. "What are they saying?" The comment about teasing has thrown her off more than just a little.

"Just go watch," he says with a sigh. "Though I'm warning you now if you start calling me Arthur afterward, I really am going to hurt you." His hand cups her butt for just a moment in warning, and then he gently pushes her up to her feet.

"Okay off you go, Potts. I promise that I'll come up and eat in an hour or two."

She sighs. "I can't stay down here? I don't have to watch anything right now if the TV is too distracting."

"Pepper, next to you, the TV is hardly worth noticing. Just let me get through a few more hours worth of entries."

"When you come up you're also taking a break," she warns him. "You know...lunch? Though it'd be a really late lunch. Or maybe a really early dinner..."

"Set a timer. Ninety minutes." He grins a little wolfishly. "If I'm not upstairs by then you have my permission to come down and get creative getting me upstairs. Just don't forget to soak in the hot tub yourself in the same allotted time so your muscles are loose when I help you do your stretching."

Pepper rolls her eyes, the man is insatiable. "Actually, this time I really was talking about _food_. Because I know exactly how much you ate at breakfast. But if you need a little before dinner snack..." She smirks, "I'm open to discussion."

The way his eyes take in her gently curved form is a more than sufficient answer. "For the record, Pepper...you in my clothes. Incredibly not fair." His eyes narrow slightly as he stares at the gap of skin around the collar of the shirt "Now out of here, Pepper, before I decide Rhodey needs any more torment than he already has..."

"Well, every time you offer to help me get dressed in my clothes, we get...distracted." She smiles. "Love you. See you in ninety minutes." Then she wanders back over to the elevator and pushes the button for first floor. Maybe she can send Rhodey out for fast food or some other distraction before he gets back upstairs.

'Hmm...maybe not fast food, on second thought.' There's a little place about forty minutes down the coast that she can always get Tony to slow down and eat. Even when he's immersed in a massive project. It's always been her last resort and best weapon for getting him to really relax.

And it's not as if this situation doesn't merit it...

She finds Rhodey sitting at the table upstairs. "Hey Rhodey, how would you feel about doing a massive favor for me?"

The colonel sets down his soup spoon and raises an eyebrow. "Do I even want to ask?"

"Take your time," Pepper instructs Rhodes as she shoves him out the door to go get their dinner exactly eighty minutes after she first came up from the garage. The colonel just grumbles something about his grandma and something else about maybe how he's not coming back at all, but Pepper ignores him. She trusts him to come back with food.

In the eighty minutes she's suffered through, she's spent nearly an fifty going through video clips with Rhodes - starting with the one Tony suggested - and another twenty five taking a soak in the hot tub. She'd _needed_ the soak just to calm herself down. When she'd seen the interview had involved one of the board of directors, she'd been prepared for the worse.

What she'd gotten was an old man trying to create an actual romance out of her working relationship with Tony.

"They're a modern day Arthur and Guinevere, is the best way I can say it," the suit had said. "He's doted on her for years and she's never taken any notice. Which I guarantee only fueled the attraction because that's an unusual thing for him." She'd actually laughed so hard it'd hurt her shoulder. If one considered actually listening to one's personal assistant "doting," then Tony was guilty as charged. But for the most part, her boss had only offered her the common courtesies that any man might offer a woman in his family. Which, she supposed, was a large step up from the way he treated a number of other women.

She'd stopped laughing when she'd remembered Rhodes' remarks about how far Tony was willing to go for her sake. There was that damn statement about judging by motivation. Then she'd wondered how she'd have taken it if someone went on network television and basically accused her of what amounted to hopeless pining.

'Not that well.' Was the conclusion she'd come to.

The fact that Tony was taking it with a certain amount of humor showed he deserved more credit for laughing at himself then she'd ever really given him until that moment.

It was while she was soaking in the tub that Pepper had decided to seduce Tony properly in thanks.

A great deal of her lingerie drawer had ended up in her suitcase, and once Rhodey was gone, she hurried back to the bedroom and pulled out a slinky, wispy piece of blue silk from under a pile of sweats. It'd been a birthday present from one of her girlfriends years ago, and hadn't really been put to proper use yet.

She shimmied into the negligee, looking down in shock when the neckline plunged a little deeper than she'd guessed. Not that it really mattered, she supposed. There was definitely no reason to get shy around Tony now. She suspected he probably knew her body better than she did at this point, and if he didn't, he was certainly well versed enough to point out how many freckles were on each section of her skin.

From his closet she retrieved another of his dress shirts. The buttons were more than she could manage on her own, so she left it open. Once again, she really wasn't trying to hide anything as much as she was setting a particular tone. His comment about liking her in his clothing would set the perfect foil for what was just underneath.

Then she slipped on a pair of high heels, and since he would make a fuss if she went to him - 'Heels, Pepper? With your shoulder?' - she draped herself across the bed and hit the intercom button on the nightstand.

"Mr. Stark? As requested, this is your ninety minute warning. Unless you want your before dinner snack to get cold, I suggest you come up."

"On my way upstairs," Tony's voice crackles back across the intercom. "So where is Rhodey hiding? Out on the balcony or something?"

Pepper does some smirking of her own. "I sent him to that Greek restaurant you like. The one that is almost forty minutes down the coast? And that's not during rush hour traffic. We've got probably two hours, I figure, before he gets back."

"Remind me to give you a raise for your constant devotion to innovative thinking." Then the line goes dead and all she has to do is simply lie there and wait.

The payoff when Tony reaches the bedroom is in no way disappointing.

He stops dead in the doorway and his eyebrows just about disappear into the hair hanging tousled over his forehead. She notes that it's probably about time to schedule a haircut, though if she doesn't, he won't even notice until his hair actually starts getting in his eyes. And she kind of likes it longer. It certainly gives her a little extra something to hold on to.

"Mr. Stark," she murmurs as he just stands there. "Were you going to join me for a snack?"

The grin that spreads across his feature is worth every cent she's sure Margaret spent on this particular birthday present. "Somebody's got a bad habit of raiding my closet," he murmurs as he shrugs out of his shirt and shoes before climbing onto the bed beside her. That leaves him in socks and in his light cotton work pants.

She hasn't been letting herself wonder whether he's been wearing any boxers since Rhodey got here.

She intends to find out though, within the next thirty seconds.

"Well, Rhodey objected to me wandering around the house in only a negligee," she tells him with a straight face. "But he's gone now so I guess you can have this back." She shrugs out of his shirt and scoots a little further away from him before she tosses the offending item at him.

His eyes narrow a little. "So how long have you had this predilection for torture? Though I have to say...not a real surprise to me. Anyone with your shoe fetish is a pretty likely possibility..." Then his smile softens, unlike other parts of his body, and he parts the silk over her chest to survey the previously hidden contents with undisguised glee. "Wow. You're a _girl, _Potts. I never would have guessed."

"Excuse me?!" She plants her hand on his shoulder and pushes. It's not nearly as effective as it would have been if she'd had two hands.

She's suddenly not turned on at all, just insulted and angry.

And Tony sees that. "_Kidding_, Potts." He frowns at the genuine hurt on her face. "_Hey_...easy, Pepper, this is _me_. We've already had this conversation, remember? I think you're _dynamite_ just as you are."

"Then why did you say it?" She sighs and look away just a little bit bitterly, hating that she's still smarting under the sting. Because it's not that outrageous a remark considering that this is Tony.

"Because I was _teasing_...you know that thing that I do? Where I make sarcastic remarks and you roll your eyes but don't take them seriously?" He shakes his head and makes a mental note that making jabs about her supposed glut or lack of feminine attributes is now completely off the list of appropriate comments. He'd gained a glimpse of that possibility last night, but this only confirms what he suspects is a much deeper vein of damage.

One he's beginning to suspect may take years to truly heal.

'Nowhere like the present to begin though.' So he reaches out a hand and cups her face. "Pepper, I know you're pissed, but please look at me." She does so reluctantly, and with frustration and unease in her eyes. There's anger in there somewhere too, though she's doing her best to conceal it. Looking at her now he wonders just how many men have carelessly or deliberately said things very similar to what he just did and caused huge amounts of self-doubt in her to grow.

"I was _admiring_ this..." He caresses the silk draped over her belly. The teddy is smooth and probably a wonderful sensation to the sensitive skin down below. "I have a real fetish for this sort of clothing, and judging by the contents of your underwear drawer, so do you. And that's _okay_, Pepper. There's nothing wrong with that at all."

"Then why did you _say_ it?" she mutters again. This time less angrily and her eyes are fully meeting his. "What in hell does my lingerie say about who I am that my other clothes don't, Stark?" Why had he even made the comment?

Does she really not know? Or is she trying to recreate some distance between them? Either option in intolerable, and the answer is obvious, "Your suits are your _uniform_, Pepper, and your _personal shield. _You use them to show your strength and your power and your smarts, but their main purpose is to keep the world _out." _He trails on hand up her thigh. "But you're more than just a P.A, Pepper. And _this_..." He cups her breast through the shimmering fabric. "This is you_ too_..."

He reaches down to kiss her then - first her lips, then her neck, warmth trailing down past her collarbone before he takes one nipple between his lips. The woman underneath him arches involuntarily at the suction and he smiles against her skin. "The other part of you that I'm in love with may be better hidden, but I'm not pretending it doesn't exist. I respect and admire the face you choose to show the world, but I'm also not going to say that I don't find it hot as hell when you dress a little softer. Especially when doing so pleases both of us. Come to think of it, it's probably _good_ you don't regularly dress more girly at the office. Because now that I know you might have one of these under that button-up shield of yours, I'm going to have trouble as it is getting anything _done_."

"I-I can compromise," she offers as she rakes her fingers through his hair. "Introduce some color to my wardrobe if you like." Because he's right, her wardrobe can be suited to both their taste without her giving up her sense of professionalism.

He smiles again, starts creeping lower across her chest, choosing not to suckle the other breast in favor of wandering across her trembling belly. "Up for round two down here?" He cups her center as he murmurs the words against her belly button. "Or did you have something specific in mind?"

Her eyes roll back in her head at even the memory. "A-actually, I was thinking of a quick appetizer before settling in for the main course."

"Two _hours,_ Potts. This will be an appetizer. And you haven't answered my question.." His hands trail across her thighs, parts her folds a little bit... Brush against the heat in ways that make her gasp.

"I..." Her hips squirm under his touch until he pins her down with a hand on her belly. "Oh God, have I ever mentioned how much I adore your attention to detail?"

He raises an eyebrow. "I can't imagine what you mean." His fingers trace her core. "God you're already so _wet_."

Yes well, her response to him is pretty much Pavlovian right now, but that doesn't mean she intends to massage his ego by admitting it. "I had plenty of time to psych myself up," she reminds him as she runs one heel-clad foot up his leg. His only response is a kiss to her right thigh before he lifts one leg up and over his shoulder. Then he licks his lips and dips in his thumb. The moisture spreads around easily, providing minimal friction and maximum loss of sanity

The look her gives her is unconvinced. "One of these days when the office is quiet I'm going to come lay you out on your desk when you're not expecting it just to to see if I can verify the accuracy of that statement.

The image of herself laying on her back against the smooth wood is enough to call up another reaction entirely. "I...Uhmmm..I saw you once." The words come out of her lips before she can stop them. This man is doing indescribable things to both her body and the shut off switch to her mouth that is somewhere in her brain.

It also makes her hips jerk so hard he actually has to use some strength to keep her in place.

He raises an eyebrow. "You _'saw me'_ once? You're going to have to be more specific that that, Potts. Doing what, exactly? Because even if we're only talking sex, I think you've probably stumbled in on the preliminaries a couple of times." His thumb finds her clit and starts running lazy circles around it as he waits for an answer.

She tries to form a coherent reply, but what comes out is a squeak. Does he really expect her to think when he's busy doing that?! The man obviously has a false impression of her level of mental control.

"Pepper? Are you going to make me drag an answer out of you?" He blows softly against her. "Because I can." She's more than aware that he's capable of that kind of torment.

She's realized over the last forty eight hours he might well be the most efficient interrogator that she's ever seen. Because he has almost endless patience and no problem at all reading her posture and knowing the limits of her body.

'Which could make him quite dangerous, if he wanted to be.' They've joked several times about who's the more natural Dom in the relationship, the truth is they _both _are, just with very different techniques.

For all his jokes about spanking, Tony's greatest weapon undoubtedly is his voice.

Well that and his ability to know exactly how hard to push her mentally.

"Kind of hard to think when you're doing that." It's half a plea for mercy and half a confession. If he's going to probe for details he's going to have to give her some space. Not that he seems at all willing to stop. He smacks her hip just lightly enough for it to sting a little.

"Yes, but you say the most interesting things when you're not thinking." His head dips and she can hear him inhaling deeply. "God, Pepper..." His voice is rougher now, more charged. "You brought it up which means you _want_ to talk about it. And I'm completely ready to not let you come for _hours_ until you break down and tell me."

And he will, whether Rhodey comes back or not. She knows that all of a sudden with an assurance that's actually a little bit scary. So she manages two simple sentences. "It was in July of '04. I couldn't look you in the eye after I left for almost two weeks."

"That long ago?" He almost sounds disappointed, like he hadn't thought she'd be able to restrain herself for any length of time once she had a clue of what she was been missing. Of course, he's the one with the impulse control problems, not her. So if their positions had been switched, maybe he wouldn't have held himself back.

How different would their lives be now if that was what had actually happened?

"Sorry, babe," she murmurs as she arches into the absentminded caress of his fingers. "But believe me. It definitely stayed with me," she moans. "More than I wanted it to at the time." It had taken literally _months_ before she'd stopped having momentary flashes of what she'd walked in on at various out of nowhere moments.

And she's woken up more than once since that evening with an ache between her thighs and his name on her lips. Though thankfully she's never going to have to deal with the aftermath of that hunger alone again.

Well unless she wanted to, or he wanted to watch, which she supposed would be completely different.

"Tell me about it." It's definitely a command, not a request this time. And he backs up enough to give her enough space in the middle of sensation to think. Not that he leaves her completely. His fingers start to delicately caress the back of her knee as his lips press against her skin. He inhales again, as if just the scent of her skin is somehow addicting. As if all of her is actually that fascinating for him.

"I'm not sure I can..." She admits after a minute. The throb between her legs is making her crazy.

"Was it morning or evening?" His voice is actually coaxing. One finger comes back up to circle her rim in a way that's almost soothing after the retreat.

"It was evening. After ten actually." She shivers under his almost feather light touch. "I'd come back to the office because I'd forgotten my prescription." She'd been nearly recovered from a nasty sinus infection but she hadn't wanted to risk reinfection so she'd come back to the mansion.

Her reward is a single finger pushed inside.

"Where was I?" His voice is taking on just a hint of the growl that drives her crazy and she has to wonder what about this arouses him. Is it the fact that she's telling him about one of his past exploits? Or could it be that hearing her voice tell him about his past exploits somehow puts her in his head, replaces the woman he'd been involved with with her.

Or is he simply getting off on knowing how much he'd effected her even back then?

The finger crooks upward and starts circling insistently.

'Oh god.' Pepper doesn't know, and right now she doesn't care. There's something a little freeing about this particular confession. "Kitchen." she manages to admit. "You had your company naked and spread out on the dining room table when I walked right past the room."

"Was I naked, or was I still dressed?" He pulls back far enough to strip the negligee from her completely. His eyes don't meet hers; they run possessively over her body for a moment before he traces the same path with his hands.

"You had on your boxers." Her voice is hoarse. "Oh God Tony, I was starved at that point for skin, and watching..." She shudders, "You were..I was just ravenous." And she had been ravenous, rooted on the spot and fully aware of the fact that she should leave, but utterly unable to look away.

She also remembers being absolutely horrified that five years of managing to not even let herself imagine what he'd be like as a lover had fallen to pieces right in front of her disbelieving eyes. She'd never truly pity any woman who she escorted out of the mansion after that.

"Why?" There's a light dusting of golden freckles across her hip that he simply has to taste. "What was I doing?" he asks as he bends his head.

"You had your head between her legs. I could _see._.." God it just sounds so dirty, so unbearably_ compelling_. She's flushing again just thinking about it.

He'd been dragging it out for the woman on the table. By the time he'd been done, she'd been flailing and squirming and begging. "Your fingers must have been buried inside her, judging by the way that she was yelling."

"Have I mentioned how much I appreciate the fact that you're a moaner and not a screamer?" he murmurs against her skin. "I have enough hearing damage without some woman howling in my ear." Before she can take exception to that, his hands are between her legs again. "How long did you watch us, Virginia? Did you stay and watch until she came?"

'When you finally_ let_ her?' "I shouldn't have. I couldn't _move_." Another half aroused, half embaressed confession.

She supposes she should offer an apology for it, but he's never going to get one.

"Did you want a turn, Virginia?" Tony keeps on speaking, his breathing now more rapid, and his pupils dilating. 'And what would have happened if I'd turned and seen?'

If he'd pivoted and caught her without the mask... He has a feeling the other woman would have simply ceased to exist.

What would their mutual starvation have called into being?

"It had been _forever_ for me at that point, Tony," she whispers back. "I was so hungry after I left the house that I almost broke one of my cardinal rules. I almost went out to a club to just to find someone to fuck me."

He growls then and his teeth scrape against her belly in a small punishment. "What would you have done if I'd looked up and seen you? No, forget that. What would you have _wanted_ to do?"

"I don't know, Tony. I really don't. Because I don't _share_. Not usually. Even if she'd have been okay with it, it would have been too much for me."

"Let's say you'd thrown the other woman out, Pepper. Or I had." Because he probably would have done so, in the face of that kind of desperation. "What would have happened then if it was just you and me?"

"I..." Two possibilities actually. "I would have tackled you or I would have run. Or maybe both in that exact order" She probably _would_ have managed both, now that she really thinks about it.

"If you had run at that point, Pepper, I would have followed. And when I caught you..." His fingers twitch just a little and he registers her soft moan with a certain amount of smugness, but he doesn't mention it. "When I caught you, once I knew, it would have been over. We would have ended up right here."

But they wouldn't have. Pepper realizes in that second. Not in the ways that really matter in the end. Because she wouldn't have _trusted_ him.

And fire this strong without the guide posts of love would probably have emmoliated both of them.

"What do you want, Pepper? Are we snacking or savoring?" Tony finally leaves the past behind in favor of the present. Maybe he's come to the same realization, or may he's just done with being any kind of distracted.

"What time is it?" They're on a schedule. And she'd like to be able to cuddle after for at least a few minutes. "Because we're going to need to shower after this is done."

Tony laughs darkly as he raises his head enough to see the clock. As far as he's concerned, Rhodey's welcome to make himself at home because this is going to take however long it _takes._ He's not going to hurry if what they both need is slow, but he doesn't want to leave Pepper feeling self-conscious or uncomfortable around their mutual friend either.

"We still have over an hour, Pepper. Though I don't think Rhodey's gonna come looking for us if we run over a little." More than likely he'd just go down to the shop and find a game to watch. "Come on, Pepper. Just answer the question."

"I've been agreeable about slow lately..." She trails her foot up the back of his left thigh. "Does that mean you're willing to experiment a little with fast?" She wrinkles her nose. "That way there's time to shower _and_ cuddle awhile before he gets back."

He laughs, because she sounds unsure. Like she's asking for something he might find particularly repulsive. "Pepper, I have absolutely _nothing_ against fast. Please remember who you're talking to here. I'm big into adrenaline. It's feeling like I'm _constantly_ rushed that I won't tolerate."

She reaches down to his sweat pants, cupping him through the front. "Well then today I have, as they say in some circles, a serious 'greed for speed.'"

The growl she effortlessly pulls from his throat is pretty much all the agreement she needs to get.

So moments later she's helping him pull his pants off. Moments after that she's rolling onto her hands and knees, looking back at him over her shoulder. "Better angle for me this way," she explains, dropping down to cushion her chin on her hands as she spreads her thighs invitingly...

"Your shoulder." His hands are gentle as he runs them over the joint in question. "I won't hurt you, Pepper. That hasn't changed. Not when you're showing some signs of actually healing."

She nods, then half shrugs. "Then you pick the position." She's not all that picky at the moment. Though she's a little bit regretful...

From behind is one of her favorite quickie positions; she doesn't want to think how long it'll take before he'll get the chance to learn that.

"Don't fuss at me, Potts, but you know what they say about necessity." He pulls her up until she's kneeling in front of him, and then he leans her forward so her good arm is bracing her against the wall. It's quite a stretch, leaving her bent at almost a ninety degree angle. Then he takes her left hand in his and wraps both their arms around her torso, limiting her range of motion and providing extra support.

"So what do you think, Virginia? Is this an acceptable compromise?"

It's an unfamiliar position, and she can't say how it's going to affect the angle. But she likes one thing about this already; she can feel the thrum of the arc reactor against her back. It's a low, pleasant sort of sensation that's sending tingles down her spine. "It'll do," she informs him softly. "Hurry,_ please_," she murmurs with her next breath. Then her whole body trembles as he chuckles and slides inside her in one long, perfect thrust.

"Hey Pepper, I have a thought." He rocks her back into him as he rises up on his knees a little. "Let's find out what _your_ recovery time is a time or three." She squeaks, then shudders convulsively as he rocks her forward again.

"Usually five minutes at least after the first," she tells him very softly. "And never more than two in the space of an hour." She's just too _sensitive _after that for it to register as pleasure without a significant amount of trust that most of her lovers simply can't maintain.

"Hmm, well records were made to be broken. Maybe not today...but eventually." His head drops to rest against her back as he steadily increases the pace of his thrusts.

"Harder," she manages, though she's clenching her jaw. "I love it hard and deep. I promise that I can take it too - you're not going to hurt me." She may be limping a little afterwards, but she's more than willing to live with that. She won't regret it anymore that she suspects Tony regrets the scratches that she'd left on her back the first time they were together.

"Pepper..." He groans, but he sounds like a man content to be killed by the woman he loves. Then he's rising up behind her and his free hand moves to her hip to brace her as he gives into her plea.

And he gets it. He really gets it. On levels she's can barely believe herself, much less explain. He pistons his hips so hard her eyes roll back and she's coming almost instantly. He doesn't stop though, he continues at that pace, groaning in satisfaction when she does spasm around him, but only altering the angle of her hips slightly... It takes no time at all, for either of them. He gives no mercy and less than a minute later she's coming a second time, and he's trembling with the effort of not doing the same.

"Tony, just let it go." She doesn't want him so damned in control. The point of this is to get him out of his mind for at least a few minutes. She doesn't _care_ if she comes a third time. At this point all she cares about is holding him.

His hand becomes almost _too_ tight around her hip, and then he's moving in short, controlled bursts of motion that leave him almost completely buried in her. His head drops again and she can feel the hot rush of his breath against her back as he pants and moans against her. The hand that had up till now been limiting the motion of her bad arm slips far enough down that it rests against her clit and somehow he has enough concentration to start up a rhythmic, almost punishing pulse against it.

It should be too soon for her to come again, but that doesn't stop it from happening. She has to bite her lip to keep from screaming because this one feels deeper somehow, and is the strongest one of all...

When she's next aware again she's not entirely certain that she hasn't actually passed out, because they're both lying sprawled out on their backs on the bed, and she has absolutely no memory of moving.

"That was..." She's still throbbing between her legs. Not a hunger yet exactly, but definitely an ache.

"Intense," Tony finishes for her...then he raises an eyebrow. "Five minutes at least, you say, Pepper?"

She shrugs. "What can I say, you bring out my best." She gasps as he cups her core with no warning at all... "Tony."

"My god you're half tight again." His fingers slip inside again and set up a rhythm that has her desperately squirming.

"This shouldn't be possible..." She's looking at him in disbelief.

"Tell that to your Kegel's, Virginia. The word of the day is multi-orgasmic." He grins as his fingers circle, increasingly insistent. "Though one more for now should do. You have to train the muscles up or you're going to be walking bow-legged later on." He kisses her nose. "I'm warning you that I just found a brand new way to torture you, though, and I'm not afraid to use it."

'Oh god,' she thinks again. 'I am both literally and figuratively screwed.'


	10. Chapter 10

He's not asleep, or at least Pepper's pretty sure he's not

He's not asleep, or at least Pepper's pretty sure he's not. They haven't spoken for awhile; they've just been laying in bed together, Tony wrapped around her. Every time she shifts even the smallest bit he adjusts himself so that he fits perfectly against her. Every time she sighs his arms tighten around her the smallest bit. And every now and then she can hear him breathe deeply as if he's experiencing her company through every sense available to him.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks softly as she relaxes just a little bit more of her body back into his, if that's even possible at this point.

"Believe it or not? Interview questions." His chest rumbles just a little against her back. She blinks several times, then opens her eyes to stare at him. "I kind of hacked the PR server," he admits a little guiltily. "Some of the submitted questions that they've received are actually pretty damn funny."

"Tell me about them. I need a reason to laugh. Well, another reason to. I thought being compared to pseudo-historical figures was pretty funny."

He groans. "You would. You're the one who got to be the babe with two guys mooning after her. Though for the record, I can't see you ending up in a monastery." He snickers. "You like getting your own way too much. The nuns would boot you out within a day."

She elbows him in the ribs in rebuttal to that. "This from the man who made me buy an entire sports apparel company out because they changed the fabric blend for his socks."

He shrugs. "The new rayon crap they were using made my feet _itch_. It was totally annoying. Besides, what else do you do with my sheer amount of money?"

"Tell me about the questions, Tony. Please?" Because right now, in the aftermath of passion, she's starting to get a little scared again. They'd just _found_ their way to each other. The thought of losing all of this is enough make her panic if she dwells on it for any length of time. She needs him to distract her, and maybe she needs him to distract himself as well. She wants to be able to laugh with him, to enjoy the comfort and peace.

"They asked how many more months it will be till our daughter comes to live with us." He pauses. "The one who's supposedly fifteen and living in Washington D.C. at some special school for the artistically gifted." The edges of his lips quirk up. "Well to be fair she's a redhead, I think. So Pepper, is there something that you want to tell me?"

Pepper giggles at the sheer ridiculousness of that question. "Yes. I seduced you sixteen years ago when I was...let's see, I would have been nineteen and you would have been drunk...and I've been covertly paying for her schooling at an exclusive boarding school since she was five. It's the reason I agreed to work for you: to cover tuition."

"I'm hurt, Pepper, that you think I wouldn't be interested in her welfare. After all she is a genius supposedly on caliber with me. It's my duty to breed a red-headed master race."

"Mmmm. I wish you luck with that. Does this little prodigy we spawned have a name?"

"Jaime McIntyre." He pauses and chews his lip a minute. "I'm actually thinking of setting up a scholarship for her college tuition. Her writing is phenomenal and she should see more of the world I think, to round out her perspective."

"Needy family?" Pepper asks after a cautious moment. It's not the first time Tony has shown a interest in someone who stumbles into his line of sight. But as a rule she handles his charitable engagements.

He shrugs. "From what I've seen she's just an extremely intelligent foster kid who was lucky enough to have at least one teacher in her life who actually cares. She's at the high school she is because he went out on a limb. Her scholarships for next year cover only her classes though, not room, board or textbooks."

"If you can do it in a way that won't have the press hounding her, go for it," Pepper agrees. "Though I suppose as your PA, it's my job to figure out how to do that exactly."

"Actually I have a friend you can call who'll keep your name out of it as well. His name is Thomas and his sister Amy works for a nonprofit group called Taking Chances. She does good work, and lives in the same city as Jaime.

"Alright. I'll make the calls tomorrow. Tell me another one. Another rumor I mean."

He tilts his head as if taking a moment to reflect. "They want to know why you don't wear your wedding ring in public. Seeing as how we were supposedly married last December." He smirks, waiting for her reaction to that.

"Who knew journalists could be so romantic? Let's tell them you're too stingy to buy me one. Or the sheer weight of that number of carats tires out my hand if I wear it too often."

He snorts. "They also want to know if I ever intend to become a celebrity spokesman for traumatic E.D. Seeing as I haven't been laid for almost 9 months now. Because after all, erectile dysfunction happens to more men than me."

Pepper laughs long and hard, curling into his side as she tries not to jostle her shoulder too much. When she's finally able to stop she sighs and asks the question currently on her mind. "Do you think they're asking such ridiculous questions to ensure the ones they really want answered get asked?"

He snickers. "Probably. But that last one's actually meant to be serious. I've gotten several very moving appeals, all from the same charity." He shakes his head. "Apparently they've been unable to find a woman out there who is willing to say that she's actually been in my bed since I got back from Afghanistan."

"Is this an occasion where I need to come in and save you?" She smiles against his chest. "Or at least your reputation. I mean, I've unofficially been handling your PR on the side for years now."

He rolls his eyes. "It's a tempting offer. But it would probably be counter productive. The majority of the serious queries that deserve some kind of answer pertain to whether our personal relationship has influenced our professional one." He shakes his head. "Though I would think that anyone who could read our financial records would know how stupid it is to ask that."

"They want to know if you're paying me for sex?" she asks quietly. "Or just if I've been offering you faulty financial advice?"

"They want to know why you typically stay at the house late so many nights. And if you've influenced the new direction I'm taking the company at present. Because my financial records seem to indicate that every year you've worked for me the company's giving has increased by another one percent."

"That's because I actually bothered finding charities that matched your interests," she growls. "And they should know exactly why I work so late. The reasons are usually splashed across the front page of at least one of their sections."

Pepper props herself up on her good elbow and looks down at him. "Some of them are going to try to turn this into something dirty no matter what we say, aren't they?"

He shrugs. "Puppies and roses don't tend to sell a whole lot of newsprint." He pauses. "Pepper, I think we should tell them about your unique idea about charitable profit-sharing. It may be something other companies out there would be willing to emulate."

His voice is a little hesitant, if only because he knows it would put her face more in the forefront than she prefers. Also because the new donation system Stark Industries has recently implemented has been first and foremost her baby.

All he'd done is convince the board to match the employee raised funds.

"Tony, that's not what concerns me. You have to know that. I don't care if people know about our compromise between how much you want to pay me and how much I'm willing to accept. I don't care if I, or we together, or even if the company gets audited because of this because we have nothing to hide. What we do to keep your business running is essentially a matter of public record. What I hate is that anyone can turn this into something sordid." She shakes her head. "Why do they have to always try and turn it all into something vaguely dirty?"

Tony sighs. "As I said, Pepper. It's all about money. Good works aren't as profitable as crap in the information media, they never have been and they never will be."

She wants to protest that, but she knows that it's true. Still her lover isn't done, he continues speaking. "The way the press sees it, nobody ever does anything for nothing, and if anyone says otherwise than they are either lying to you or to themselves."

"Yeah, well it's a crappy way to live, always suspecting others of having just awful motivations. And I..." Pepper shakes her head and doesn't bother continuing. She doesn't want to tell him that it feels as if they're being dragged down to that level, as if she's starting to suspect everyone of being ruthless and petty and manipulative in order to further benefit themselves. Because she knows if she _does_ tell him that, it'll hurt him in some way.

This is the world he's lived in for most of his life. His life has been wide open to public scrutiny and running commentary from anyone with an opinion ever since he was a child. She just doesn't want him to feel as if he's forced her into the life along with him. This isn't his fault, no matter what he thinks.

"Never mind." Pepper glances at the clock. They've got a few more minutes before they ought to hit the shower, so she settles herself against him again, though her eyes stay stubbornly open this time.

It only takes about a minute of silence before Tony asks, "So...what were you thinking about? Before you asked me I mean?" The caution in his voice, as if he doesn't want to subject himself to her temper, makes her smile a little, though it's kinda sad.

"I was thinking about how much I love you and how nice it is just to lay here with you. About how much I don't want to ever lose this."

He kisses her forehead. "I'm sorry, you know, that you're struggling with the adjustment to this new reality. The press just devours anything good they get in scope and replaces it with cynicism. I'm afraid you're going to have to learn how to let it roll off your skin. You have to be a bit of a snake yourself in order to fight off the vipers." His arm wraps around her tighter. "We might have to change to survive whatever's coming, but only enough to still be ourselves at the end."

"Tony..." Her voice becomes more conflicted, as if she's saying things she doesn't actually want to share. "If I get hurt again -"

He reaches out and covers her lips. "Then you'll get better, and I'll try to not kick the crap out of whoever's responsible."

"That's not what I meant." Pepper pulls away, taking some of the blankets with her. She wraps them around her shoulders and sits several feet away from him with a grave look on her face. "If I get hurt again, or if I...if I'm -"

"Stop." He cuts her off before she can finish. "Am I allowed to bring this up to you before I go out on missions, then too? You seriously want to have this conversation?"

She turns her head back so she can frown him. "Now? Yes, I think you have a right to. You probably did before. Tony, we have to talk about this, and you know that. Because this isn't going to go away, no matter how much either of us want it to."

"Then we talk about it in general Pepper, because it's generally necessary - not as a prelude to some unpreventable inevitability." He face gets harsh. "Yes, everybody leaves eventually. It's not a pleasant thing but it's still a fact of life. That's why you make the most of _now_. Because now is all that you're really sure that you'll ever get. And if you spend all your time waiting for the axe to drop on top of you, then you never see what's in front of you, only what's overhead."

"I don't want you blaming yourself." Pepper lays out her biggest concern like a challenge. "I've seen you beat yourself up over this media coverage, Tony. And it's not your fault. It was a wrong place, wrong time deal, but it wasn't your fault. And if anything does happen to me, now or in the future, I don't want you to think it's your fault. Because I can't bear to see you in that kind of pain."

Tony snorts, "Pepper, this current mess with the media _is_ my fault. Maybe not the way you assume, but it still is nonetheless."

Her voice is firm. "No, we're just the disposable news item of the day. That's the society we live in. You can't control that no matter what you think. Some things are out of both of our hands."

"Pepper, I nearly ripped someone's head off four days ago because I let myself get blindsided by things I should have been able to see coming. That's not about the press, that is _only_ about me. It's about the fact that there are now targets on both of our backs because I lost control of my emotions. I blew it Pepper, and in doing so I sacrificed a huge amount of our right to privacy."

"I don't blame you for what the press does. I'm_ never_ going to blame you." She stops and considers. "Well, that might not be true, because knowing you like I do, eventually you're going to do something for which you deserve all sorts of blame. Like the second camera guy. That was just stupid. But the first one... Tony, you were acting on pure, gut instinct -"

"Exactly. Instinct, Pepper. I've been dealing with the media for decades. You never show them instinct, not unless you want to get creamed." He growls just a little, and sits on the side of bed himself, with a hand rubbing the back of his neck a little roughly. "I punched out on the mental time clock the other day because I hadn't been paying attention to what was going on in my own head."

Pepper rubs her head because she's making no progress at all. "Tony...I just need you to understand that this entire thing with this...stalker... Well, it makes me worried about you. Especially after last night. I can't remember the last time I saw you so...overwhelmed."

"It wasn't the stalker that caused me to flip out, Pepper. Not last night if you're talking about what happened while I was in the shower." The words are harsher than she's ever heard from him. He sounds almost…it's hard to explain. Maybe tired and a little defeated?

"Are you denying that this situation has put you under a lot of stress?" she asks quietly when what she really wants to ask is, 'Was it me then?' What had she done?

She doesn't know and that reality just terrifies her, because he just refused to speak. And she knows that he says he needs time to process himself, but she's not sure how long her nerves will let her wait.

"Pepper, I've already had somebody tell me point blank they're going to kill you. As long as I can try and protect you, threats alone aren't that upsetting."

"That was before we were sleeping together. Before you were as responsible for me as you are now." She's afraid being lovers has only made it worse.

Because now there's so much more for the both of them to lose.

Tony though, only smiles. A little bit disbelievingly, but it's a smile nonetheless. "Pepper, the fact that we're having sex now doesn't mean that before I valued your life any less. It just means I'm not fighting both the stalker _and_ you while I'm trying to keep you safe. Which I have to admit is a huge relief. Because it's hard enough to protect your back when you're actively cooperating."

Pepper groans and falls backwards on the bed. "None of this is the point. You're under a lot of stress right now, and I feel like that's _my _fault."

His eyes narrow. "And why would you think that?" He obviously doesn't agree.

And he claims she's mule-headed. Why won't he see this? "There's no...barriers anymore, Tony." Pepper gestures between them though she's still staring up at the ceiling. "Not even the protective kind. And I don't know how to help you, which is more than a little humbling since that's my _job_, but sometimes I feel like I actually make things worse. Like my insistence on not leaving."

His face softens a little. "If you want to protect me Pepper, do it by protecting yourself. Then and only then can you watch my back safely as well." He kisses her hand. "Pepper, I'm glad you're still here."

"Tony, if I get myself killed then I don't get to spend any more time with you," she says flatly. "That's a pretty motivating fact of life if you ask me."

He blinks at that. And then he actually snickers. "Come here." It's half an order and a half request. He pats the bed beside him and looks at her invitingly. "I want to explain a little about how to survive the paparazzi."

She wants to continue their conversation on the topic it's already on, but there's such an earnestness in his voice that she almost can't stand it. She slides across the bed so she's sitting beside him. He folds one arm around her waist and then looks straight ahead.

"Look, you're right; the press are vultures. They have no respect and they'll interpret things in the harshest way possible. The trick to surviving the madhouse is only to give them what you're willing to _lose_."

"What if I don't know what I'm willing to give up?" she asks. Because she's not sure she has any guidelines for that.

"Then decide what you don't mind seeing twisted and keep back everything else." He shrugs. "It's called a persona. You've seen me use mine, often enough. Most of them think they know me but they only see what I choose to show them, and so they can never truly touch anything that's really important to me."

It's such a huge lie on his part. Because they're attacking _them_. And that's something that's incredibly important to both of them. Neither likes to see the other slighted in any way. Each would rather take the abuse themselves than see it directed at the other.

Though maybe…she'll have to find out later exactly what he thinks 'touching' means…

But he's…distracted for now, and Pepper would like to keep it that way. There are a lot of hard subjects in their lives right now, and she doesn't know how to approach any of them in a way that will get him to talk to her about them. She's trying but at times it's like they are speaking different languages.

So she follows his lead and tries to keep the conversation light. "Does that mean you're going to stop complaining about my suits and their monochromatic color scheme?"

That stops him in his tracks, and he almost looks sheepish. "I suppose I walked right into that. But Pepper the media still manages to hurt you. They haven't managed to do so to me since I was about twenty-three."

To her shock he practically opens a window into her thoughts. Maybe they read each other better than they think. "I'm hurt because of who they're making _you_ out to be, Tony. You've never taken advantage of your employees. And fine, maybe I'm a little pissed because they're casting doubts on my abilities, but they're not the first ones to say that I slept my way into my job. No one's said that in years, but they're only reviving old gossip."

To his surprise, he laughs and that and she almost gets angry, until she realizes that he's genuinely delighted. He smirks, "Do you think that they'll ever figure out why you're still with me?" His eyes twinkle a little as he flops down on his back.

"You still don't know your social security number," she mutters. "That's why."

He raises an eyebrow and rattles off nine numbers. She's a little startled that he recites them accurately. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Potts. You're still here because of what happened after a certain plane crash we got into together your first year..."

"Oh shut up." Pepper climbs off the bed. "Rhodey should be back any time now. Are you going to clean up?"

He rolls his eyes at the ceiling. "Of course she doesn't want to talk about _that_. Why on earth would she admit that she's even more crazy than I am?" He shakes his head. "When I do something massively stupid it is usually because it's fun and because I like the adrenaline rush. You on the other hand, have this whole insane attachment to higher_ morals_ that makes you do suicidal things like drag a man for two days to the nearest ranger station while you are slowly going _blind_."

"You didn't need to know. God, are we going to go over this again?" Pepper shakes her head and glares at him. "Are you coming down to dinner reeking of sex, or are you going to shower? Because I'm pretty sure the smirk you can't seem to wipe off your face for any length of time will give you away just fine."

"Repeat after me, Virginia: Subdermal hematoma." He shakes his head. "When you collapsed once we got to the local hospital you scared the hell out of me."

"I didn't collapse," she reminds him firmly. "I got dizzy, which didn't stop you from threatening to fire me."

"Yeah, well I was more than a little bit pissed at you for lying." He follows her toward the shower. "You have no idea how badly I wanted to spank you for keeping it from me."

She rolls her eyes, "Give me three months and maybe I'll let you demonstrate for the sake of nostalgia."

"Nostalgia, my ass. You could have died, Pepper. What would I have done then?" He twists on the water and reaches for the shampoo. Then he reaches for the bodywash and a large natural sponge.

It's an ancient argument she falls into comfortably. "Tony, if we hadn't gotten to that ranger station, we both _would_ have died. It was the right course at the time. You had a dislocated shoulder and a compound fracture in your right leg. What would you have done if you had known? Tried to carry me?"

"You had no sense of self preservation back then, is all I'm saying. I knew by the time you got into recovery that I was going to have to keep you around. Because if I hadn't then sooner or later your overdeveloped sense of ethics was going to cause you to die in a supremely idiotic and embarrassing way, like getting electrocuted while saving a cat that was stuck up in a tree."

"So far the only thing I've nearly been electrocuted by is Butterfingers. And a few unfinished projects you didn't warn me about in your lab." Pepper finally steps into the shower because she's starting the crave the heat of the water. Her painkillers are starting to wear off.

He turns and moves her under the stream. "You're shoulder's hurting again, isn't it?"

"It's been a few hours since I took anything for the pain. I might take a full dose tonight after we try to get through my RoM exercises." She tilts her head back into the water. "This is actually kinda nice."

"I agree." His arms wrap gently around her waist. They stand there several minutes just enjoying the heat and the company, before Pepper wipes her eyes and looks upward.

"So can I ask if you've had any luck with the coding? Are we any closer to solving this hacking mystery?"

"Yes and no." Tony busies himself with squeezing some soap into a loofa before he turns her back to him. "I didn't find any unauthorized access, but there was some random weirdness that's definitely bugging me."

"Weirdness?" Pepper questions over her shoulder.

"Yeah...some time signatures that didn't match up with dates that you or I had been in the office, but with signals that originated from our computers. Some partially scrambled code that I think _might_ be from earlier versions of Jarvis's program that might have gotten reused in the registry after an abrupt system shut down. I've ordered him to run a system and registry sweep to quarantine any abnormalities. It'll take at least 12 hours though to do a thorough job, though. In the meantime I have the server at Stark Industries running through the dates in question to check video feed from our offices just to ensure that no one accessed them that shouldn't have."

He sounds tired but confident, Pepper notes - though she wonders how much of his confidence is for her benefit and how much is genuine. If he is truly worried, would he even tell her at this point? If he's actually found evidence of some sort of intrusion, would he give her the full truth or downplay it for her peace of mind?

"You don't know Jarvis's code when you see it?" she asks, focusing on what she sees as the weakest part of his explanation.

"Pepper, some of what I found was so garbled I could barely make heads or tails out of it, and that's only mildly unusual. Hopefully the sweep Jarvis is doing will clean some of it up enough that one of us can ID it."

"How can you not recognize something you wrote?" she asks, hoping her voice doesn't sound condemning, but only shows her confusion. Because she knows for a fact that most of what she knows about this subject doesn't hold much water compared to Jarvis' sheer complexity.

Tony sighs. "Because it's regularly subtly modified. Jarvis can self repair some of his more critical systems himself; it's what makes him so life like." Then Tony snorts, "Besides, I challenge you to write yourself a note, run it through a washing machine in the pocket of your jeans, and then try to decode it three or four years later. Do you have any idea of the sheer amount of coding I've done? It's like trying to remember the exact day you wrote a certain grocery list."

She blinks. "I've never thought of it that way." It's rare she sees him admit to not knowing everything that's come out of his own mind, but then she supposes it's normal. After all he may think at a higher level, but that just means the things he has to retain are even more intricate and complex.

Tony, unaware of her thought, continues speaking. "I'm not a computer, Pepper. As you well know I can make mistakes. Or not see things that should be right in front of me." Tony turns her around and starts running the poof gently over her chest. "Do you think I'm a nerd now?" He smiles a little wryly.

"Tony, you've always been a nerd. Albeit one with an almost terrifying brain. There are super computers out there who probably can't match you in a down and dirty fight."

"The brain is just a biological computer. And it's not as if I'm unique. The first time Deep Blue faced off against Garry Kasparov, it lost. The human brain has incredible potential."

"I'm not saying otherwise," Pepper assures him, "But that only makes you more special, because it can't be denied you don't think like anyone else I've ever met. You're capable of things no one else can imagine, and the opportunities that gives you are absolutely incredible...your potential is unique…"

Before she can say any more the man behind her actually shudders, and the hand that was wiping her down pauses briefly. "Tony?" She says the word carefully. She looks up to see him biting his lip.

"God, Pepper. You're starting to sound just like my father." He draws a ragged breath and starts wiping her down again.

Pepper freezes. Her entire body tense as the conversation between her and Rhodey earlier suddenly floods back into her head. She's always known that Tony's relationship with his father was double edged sword: one where the desire to emulate ran neck to neck with the media driven sense that he would never fill the other man's shoes.

After talking to Rhodey though, she's coming to see that there's a more personal element to it as well, though. She's beginning to grasp that maybe as a boy Tony had faltered sometimes under the sheer weight of other people's expectations.

Tony's words now only added strength to that theory. "I'm...I'm just a person, Pepper. Fallible and human. Don't make me out to be more than anyone else, no matter what my IQ is. Because at the beginning of each day, I put my pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else."

He almost looks fragile, so she doesn't push right now though this does get filed away for later consideration and discussion. "Tony... I am proud of you and what you have been able to accomplish. But I think I can agree with more reason than anyone, that you are definitely human and definitely have your fallacies." She cups his face in her hand. "Or am I going to have to remind you about some of the more embarrassing situations I've found you in?"

Just like that the tension breaks. He laughs aloud and tries to look innocent. "I wouldn't know what you mean. After all, I'll the very model of control and decorum." His eyes are twinkling though, and his mouth is turning up, she's guessing he knows exactly some of the incidents to which she's referring.

"So your brain is a supercomputer compared to most people's desktop PCs..." She shrugs. "I can still keep a better spreadsheet than you."

"Yes well, you're...how to they put it a little anal reten..."

She reaches down and grips him, suddenly hard. "I would seriously reconsider that choice of words if I were you."

"...Dedicated?" he meekly supplies.

"Better. Dedicated has all sorts of...pleasant...connotations." She smiles lazily at him.

He groans. "Pepper that smile is _not _going to get either of us downstairs on time."

"This is the smile of a satisfied woman, Stark. You'd better get used to seeing it." Her eyes turn playful. "Though, I think I'm satisfied enough for one day. The question is, are you?"

"Sore?" he asks in genuine concern. "I suppose we did both get a little…over-eager..."

"Tony, remember how you could still feel the scratches I accidentally left on you?" He nods. "I'm quite happy to be reminded of you with every step I take."

He smirks. "Then it'll be worth waiting until tomorrow until you recover a little."

"Oh, I don't know." She grins as her hand releases him and slips down the back of his thigh. "If you can't wait that long, I might know of one way to keep you from getting frustrated."

He shudders again, but this time it's pleasant. "Pepper, you really need a good night's sleep and another full dose of your meds. Not that I reject the sentiment, just the timing." He steps out of the shower then. "Now come on, let's go downstairs and pretend to neck on the couch. Maybe we'll get another chance to creep out Rhodey when he comes in."

"If you want to freak him out, maybe we shouldn't pretend." Pepper sighs as she lets him pull her out of the shower. "No warmed towels this time, Mr. Stark? You're getting pretty confident that I'm going to stick around."

Tony's eyes are intense as he retrieves a stack of towels from the bathroom's closet. "Pepper, if you tried to leave I'd just come bring you back or hang out where you were pretty much indefinitely." He tucks one of the largest towels around her body, sighing a little regretfully. "It doesn't mean I can't enjoy the chance to spoil you on occasion."

"Yeah? You'd come after me?" For some reason that makes her feel a little breathless.

"I told you, Potts. You made your choice that first night. I might freak out occasionally, but that doesn't change the way that I feel. We're an us now. There is no going back."

'That sounds a great deal like a marriage proposal.' Not that she's going to bring the fact up just yet. That may be the eventual destination but she figures they've got enough to handle just two days into the journey. "I don't want to go back," she whispers as she rises up on her toes to kiss him hungrily.

He kisses her back and thinks of the ring in his basement desk drawer. Some day he's going to have to explain his agreement with Rhodey and pray she doesn't kill him.

In the meantime he's content to soak in moments like this and be simply quiet and content.

"I love you," she murmurs against his lips as they slowly and reluctantly break the kiss.

"I love you to." His hand runs down her good arm. "But unfortunately real life beckons, and we both need to get dressed."

She rolls her eyes and follows him out. "I really do need help with that, Tony. Unless you want me in your robe again."

"I wouldn't mind in the slightest." He gestures. "But since I'm guessing you do, just get on what you can alone and then bring me the rest."

"Keep in mind that I'm just asking this because you lose me sometimes, but is this you doing one of your typical mental jumps to a new topic, or are you too shy to ask me to jerk you off?"

Pepper asks the question as she starts digging through the drawers she finally transferred her clothing into. She hears a cough then a 'thunk' as Tony falls on his ass.

When she turns toward him he's on the floor with his sweat pants wrapped around his ankles. "Uhm...that would definitely not be the latter." He carefully unwinds the fabric and tugs his pants up.

She feels more than a little bit of disappointment. "Just checking. You just surprised me there. I didn't think it would hurt to ask."

Tony rubs an eyebrow. "To be honest the thought just hadn't occurred to me. We have stuff downstairs that we need to get done." He snorts, "Though I guarantee that I won't be thinking about much anything else in the near future, now."

"Sorry," she says, honestly apologetic. "It's just...well, one moment we're kissing, and everything's all rosy, and then you just kinda up and let the room. I was surprised."

He grin is a little wry. "I'm just trying to avoid temptation. As you said you're not really up to another round...besides Rhodey should be here any time."

"Not everything has to be mutual, Tony. As you know very well since you came only once in the process of making me come five times." He'd only been aiming for four, but the last had sort of snuck up on both of them, if she was totally honest. "And like I said...all you have to do is suck it up and ask, Stark." Once again she grins at him before she pulls a tank top over her head and then a t-shirt over that. "Well, can you see my nipples in this?"

He groans. "You are evil." He gestures at the stiffening fabric. "We need to order you some of those band-aid style things...you know that go..." He gestures at her chest vaguely. "Because it's fine unless you start getting aroused, but then it's pretty damn obvious."

"Well?" The question is a challenge? 'Is he going to ask for a hand job or not?'

"Judging by last night we don't have enough time, Potts. Another five or ten minutes and Rhodey will be here."

"Rhodey can wait. He's probably expecting us to still be going hot and heavy anyway. But if you don't want to..." She smirks. "Then you'd better help me into a bra since I'm fresh out of pasties."

He groans again. "Some help would be appreciated." The continued teasing has had plenty of effect. If they go downstairs like they are at the moment, Pepper will not be the one most obviously limping.

Pepper's got her t-shirt off, but she makes no move to remove her tank top. She just gives him that lazy grin he'd reacted to in the shower and crooks her finger at him.

"I am so whipped," he murmurs under his breath. But it doesn't stop him from willingly crossing the room.

"Well, not yet you're not, but we agreed to save the really kinky stuff for when I'm completely healthy." She kisses him to cut off any further comments.

Rhodey doesn't make it home before they're finished, but by the time he does both Tony and Pepper are slightly limping. Intelligent man that he is, he eats his food and doesn't ask.


	11. Chapter 11

"I'm telling you, Potts, you're going to make me crazy

"I'm telling you, Potts, you're going to make me crazy. The press conference is in three and a half _hours_. Go pick out an outfit already! Because there's still makeup and hair and the other varied forms of primping afterwards that females have to do..."

Pepper Potts raises her eyebrow but doesn't look up from her computer. "Unlike other people, Stark, I'm not particularly vain. If you're nervous go pluck your eyebrows or something. I need to finish this up." He glowers at her, which she notices as she glances up from her computer briefly. Then she sighs, "Come on, Tony. How much primping can I actually do? And how much do you expect me to do with one hand? My hair is clean and it'll take us a half hour at most to get me dressed."

Normally she'd try and put her hair up, since it tended to be too curly to emphasize her professionalism when she just let it hang. But today she was going to have to settle for dampening it a little and running a brush through it or maybe putting in a simple ponytail.

"If I don't know what you're wearing, Pepper, how will I know what I am?" Tony's voice is just the slightest bit whiny. "It's called wardrobe coordination."

She snorts. "We are _not_ going to go on camera looking like a modern day equivalent of the Bobsey twins, Stark."

"Couples dress alike," he says, as if this is a valid point.

"Couples on vacation in Bermuda where no one recognizes them, maybe," she mutters as she deposits another load of e-mail into her trash bin. There's something soothing about the process.

He rolls his eyes. "I'm not saying we have to be opposite gendered twins, Pepper. But I would like to know what you're using for a base and accessories so at least we don't _clash._ Come on, Potts. You're the girl with a shoe collection that could fill an entire bedroom closet. Do not tell me that you don't understand this kind of thing."

"My shoes aren't going to show on the screen. I might not even wear any." Pepper lets go of her mouse and leans back in her chair. "Tony, if you're that concerned, go pick out what I'm wearing for me. I only brought three suits and all of them are completely appropriate. I'd say that should help you narrow your own options considerably."

He wrinkles his brow. "You're just going to wear one of your work suits for this?" He shakes his head. "This is a _press conference_ Pepper. Don't you think it merits a little more attention than the daily grind?"

"It's what I have, Tony. It's that or one of your suits – which I am not wearing, so don't even consider it. Besides, since when is attending a press conference _not _work?"

He sighs. "You're not attending a press conference, you're hosting one, and okay, black is a useful base, but you should also thrown in some color. Do I really need to coerce you into not dressing like Condaleeza Rice?"

She leans back in her chair. "And what's wrong with the way that I dress? My stuff is all from designer lines and well put together -"

Tony snorts. "Forgive me if I don't think you're going to transmit the right kind of message if you go on camera looking like you're dressed for a funeral. I'm not saying you have to be Oprah, but a little bit of color will go a very long way toward setting the tone for this thing."

Her lips narrow. "Black is slimming. Black is responsible and practical. Why are you still harping on my wardrobe?"

Tony sighs. "And why are you being stubborn about something Jarvis could illustrate several times over if I asked him to pull up our video news archive?" He kisses her forehead, "I'm not asking you to be Princess Diana, here, but if this is going to work then you're going to have to start dressing your part." He taps her nose, "You've always had an aura of royalty carefully hidden under those suits of yours, Pepper. This is the time to let it out of its cage and into the open - because how you dress is half of the battle with these people."

Pepper looks at him. "You're not telling me anything I don't know, Tony. But I only brought three suits for work once I'm up for going in a few weeks, and a lot of things that have elastic in them. I'm sorry if you don't think it's appropriate. It's still all that I have."

Tony blinks. "Pepper, you work for _me_. There are certain doors that can throw open." He checks his clock. "Look, it's 2 pm. And that boutique you normally shop from on Broadway has all its merchandise online. Pick something you're comfortable with that's appropriate and Happy can pick it up and get it here before you have to go on camera."

"Tony! I'm _not_ dressing up for this. The media is lucky to get a chance to talk to us at all. I'm not doing them any favors. _I'm_ who you fell in love with, not some dolled up version of me, and they'd better get used to it."

Tony groans. "Pepper, look at what you're wearing right now - light blue and grey. Yesterday it was cream colors and green. The 'real you' _doesn't_ wear black except on the clock." He holds his hands up, "You know what, it's really not worth arguing about anymore. If it this is really outside your comfort zone then I'll let it drop." He shakes his head. "As for your hair, if you want to try and put it up I can even help you with that. It won't be intricate but we can at least manage a ponytail or bun."

"Wait - Tony..." Pepper sighs and closes her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just...this is related to Stark Industries, so in my mind, it's business. That puts me on the clock. That means there will be people looking to me and depending on my judgment. And that means dressing the part. I'm not actually _trying_ to be difficult. It's just...well, this is the way it's always been and I don't see why that has to change now."

"As I said, Pepper, it's not worth getting angry about." Tony shrugs. "At least it leaves me wide open. I'll go lay out my stuff."

Pepper wonders if this is a fight. Or more precisely, if this is what a relationship fight is like. Because she _knows_ what it's like when they fight. This though leaves her feeling...small. Like she's being ridiculously picky over trivial matters.

And the worst part is that considering Tony's physical and mental retreat, she doesn't think explaining any more is going to help.

It's just - they've gone through so many changes already. More than she can process at this point. She thinks that she might actually lock herself in a room away from everyone if she has to go through a radical makeover just so she can fit the image of "Tony Stark's girlfriend." Besides, she's going to be wearing a navy blue sling that'll obscure most of whatever she ends up wearing. It's not as if she's going to be winning fashion points in any case.

Yet Tony is frustrated – like she's missing something maybe, and she just can't figure out why it's even bothering him. She knows that he likes beautiful women, yes, but he's never once given her serious reason to doubt how much he adores her.

Which means they're probably operating from different playbooks again.

'At least he caved.' She wonders if that's supposed to make her feel better. Tony, for what it's worth, isn't exactly sulking. It's more like he disagrees but out of respect for her feelings he's surrendered the issue and is now trying to move onto other things. She watches as he disappears down the hall, presumably into the master bedroom, and after a few minutes she hears the shower go on.

'Probably shaving after, too.' He hasn't for several days, and his goatee is nearly a beard now. Which suits her when they're alone, but she supposes that the style is likely to be criticized if he wears it on camera. 'They'll accuse him of looking like a caveman, or a hippie. Or someone who's obviously gone around the bend.'

Damn it, she hates when other people so blindly judge him.

The thought boomerangs back at her. She thinks about her black suits and sighs; wonders how many off-hand comments he's heard about her wardrobe. How many times has she been compared to a school marm while he's had to smile and silently take it.

It's annoying, and irritating, and if not for him she wouldn't be doing it, but she gets up and walks down the hall to the bedroom and starts browsing through the blouses she brought with her. It's a press conference. She can get by with the black pencil skirt, some kind of colorful silk top, and the strand of pearls in her jewelry box if he thought to pack it.

She's located one that will probably do: a light pearl-blue shirt that is visually more inviting without being overly frilly when Tony emerges from the bathroom. "Hey Pepper, I forgot. There's something here in the closet that I think might also be yours. It showed up with my dry cleaning, and I know for a fact that it doesn't belong to me."

Pepper blinks as he carries out a suit jacket she'd given up on ever seeing again...

It's pearly grey with a delicate black pinstripe. She'd bought it and the matching skirt for the 65th anniversary of the founding of Stark Industries. And that had only been for the big address Tony had given the stockholders. The dinner had required different attire entirely, but she'd really liked the suit. The shirt she's wearing was its mate. When the coat had gone missing she'd been disappointed for weeks.

"I can't believe…I never thought I'd get to wear this again."

Tony shrugs. "I'm sorry it took so long to point it out, then. I only noticed it was there last week and I kept forgetting to mention it when you were here." He walks over and pulls open his top bureau drawer. "And while I'm thinking about _that_, I have something else for you as well."

Several moments later he extracts an oblong package, wrapped in colored tissue paper with some kind of Asian writing. "I...I found these the last time I was in Japan. "

Pepper accepts the package a little shyly, before raising an eyebrow. "Tony, you were in Japan, like...three or four months ago."

He shrugs a little and gives her a wry smile before half turning away as if to give her privacy, or to miss it if she is less than impressed with his gift. "Yeah, well, I thought I should get you something for your birthday while I was thinking about it."

She opens the package a little awkwardly and then catches her breath. There are three different sets of delicate hair combs lying within.

"Are they handmade?" She carefully lifts one out of its bed of tissue paper and examines it. It's a simple design - a pale blue lotus flower slightly curved up at the edges.

Tony shifts. "I didn't really ask. I just walked by and…it made me think of you."

"Well they're beautiful." She takes the couple of steps needed to get close enough to kiss his cheek.

He smiles and hugs her. Then looks at the bed. "Dang, I retract all earlier complaints. I _love_ how that particular skirt fits your ass." He grins a little naughtily and disappears back into the closet.

Pepper smiles and watches him for a few seconds before turning to go put her shirt in the dryer for a few minutes on the steam cycle. _Someone_ hadn't been particularly careful about packing her silk shirts.

"Hey Potts - this one or this one?" Two suit coats get thrust through the door. On is black, another is a lighter charcoal. "With this I think." A tie that compliments both suit coats gets thrown over the shoulder of one of them.

"Why are you hiding in the closet? And the black. One of us should look responsible."

He snorts. "And we're picking _me_?! This is going to be a change." He emerges clad in nothing but a fresh pair of silk boxers. They make Pepper blink in several fairly...distracting ways.

"Not fair," she tells him as she tells herself to calm down. "We don't have time for you to be walking around dressed like that."

"Why do you think I was hiding in the closet?" He snorts. "Though for the record, Potts, we have three and a half more hours...more than enough time for a quickie. If you really need it." He tries to look self sacrificing as he says it, and fails pretty much miserably.

Does she _need_ it? Well...no, actually. She'd _like _it, but he's already complaining about the time and getting dressed. If they have sex then they'll both need showers...

"Actually, I was thinking we should go over the questions one more time just so we're certain about what we're saying."

He nods then drops the black suit coat on the bed, letting the grey one slide completely unnoticed to the floor. "One for the road then," he says a little huskily, stepping up to wrap his hand around the back of her neck…

The kiss is warm and more than a little naughty, a definite promise of things to come. Tony attempts to look sober as he pulls back a minute or so later. "What?! I needed a little motivation to get through the press conference without killing anyone." He winks.

Pepper snorts. "We're not even going to be in the same room as anyone. Do you think I can get one more of those?"

His hands drop to her bottom and pull her in tight against his groin. "I suppose. Can you make do with just one?"

His tongue tangles with her before she can bother to answer.

"What are you, a potato chip?" she gasps as he lets her pull back for air. Then she's the one taking control of the kiss, her hand sliding behind his neck and playing with the hairs on his nape as she rises further up on her tiptoes.

He groans and stoops to slightly lift her up, turning her around to press her against the nearest wall. "If we're on camera, no one will be able to smell us..." he points out after a moment. "Which negates the need for a shower."

"Wait - questions. We should go over the questions." Like why is the skin on the back of his neck so freaking soft?

"An hour for this. Two hours for other things. Half an hour to get us both prepped and into our suits..." His hands slide under the waistband of her sweat pants, cup and massage her ass.

"Was this your plan from the beginning, Mr. Stark? To lure me into your bedroom so you could seduce me?" Pepper arches into his body as she wraps her thighs around his hips.

He pushes her sweatpants off her hips, reaches down with one hand to pull his erection free. "Before you got in here? Not so much. But it's been kind of touch and go with Rhodey downstairs..."

She laughs breathlessly. "Poor Rhodey."

"Poor Rhodey, my ass." He shudders and his eyes drift shut when he finally shoves home. "He's not the one who knows what he's missing."

"Ohhhmmmm..." Pepper sighs as she moves into his thrust. "I think we can probably go over the questions in an hour."

"Your party...if I remember who's turn it is," he informs her with a rocking twist of his hips.

She shudders hard and rakes her nails through his hair. "I wonder if other couples are as crazed as we are."

"Probably yes, in their honeymoon phase."

She groans and drops her head back. "Is that what we're on, then? Or do we have that to look forward to still?"

He pauses for a tenth of a second before he begins thrusting more aggressively. "Pepper, for the record, if this were our honeymoon we'd be away from everyone at least a month, and I wouldn't let you out of _bed_ that first week."

She gasps, tries to rock into his thrusts without losing her grip. "Oh really? What if I wanted to have my way with you somewhere else?"

"That's why there's a second week," he informs her tartly. "Besides you'd be too busy to have much time to think..." He carries them over to the bed on wobbly legs and carefully sits down.

She uses the momentum to push him back on the bed so she's kneeling astride him. "Am I tiring you out already?"

"No. But as I said, it's your turn. Never let it be said, I can't share. And for the record, Pepper, I'll marry you tomorrow if you'll let me."

"Mmm-hmm," she agrees as she finds a more comfortable position, gasping at the slick heat.

She completely misses the seriousness in Tony's eyes. "No pressure though. I don't see that there's any reason to hurry. At least not to the altar."

"I should hope not." She swivels her hips in something close to a figure eight pattern.

"I do want to marry you," he informs her hoarsely. "But in every way that matters, Pepper, I think I already have." His fists bunch in the bed sheets and his hips arch up suddenly as his control falters slightly.

"Wait. What?" She tightens her knees around his sides as her eyes focus on him, or focus as much as they're able. They're still pretty unfocused and her hips are moving with and against him automatically. He can tell the difference between having her full attention focused on his body, and half of it focused on his words.

"It's all right, love. We can talk about it later." His hips thrust up deliberately, impaling her more deeply atop him.

"Okay..." Her eyes slip shut and her head falls back as she focuses on their bodies once more.

As far as proposals go, it isn't much. He doubts she'll even fully remember it later. But then he proposed the first night they made love, and he knows for a fact she still hasn't figured that out yet.

It doesn't take much longer before she's trembling over him and her body is pulling him closer - from her hands on his shoulders to the place they're joined.

"Every time I see you later today I'm going to be seeing this," he whispers. "How's that for keeping in mind who you are at your core?"

"That's just going to remind me of who I _had_ at my core," she mumbles as she goes limp against him. He's still hard inside her, though after the other day she shouldn't be surprised. "I think you might actually be the death of me," she informs him as he gently rolls her onto her back.

"I consider it a personal challenge, yes." He pulls out of her and slithers down between her thighs. "Lord almighty Potts, I _love_ the way you taste."

She's so sensitive she almost protests, almost slides her hand between him and his goal to stop him. But the thought of what he might do if she tries makes her hesitate, and then he's driving her out of her mind again.

He makes her comes twice more before he finally pulls back. "There's nothing like orgasm to make you relax." He slides into her again and finally moves toward his own end. "You know, I think I'm just going to stay here the rest of my life."

"We'd never get anything done, not to mention it'd kill our social life." She slides her tired arms around his shoulders to hold him close.

When Tony finally comes it's so hard she could almost swear he's seizing. His arms give out and he barely manages to roll off of her to one side.

"Fine. Just a full day then, probably on our previously mentioned honeymoon." He closes his eyes in elated exhaustion and just tries to breathe.

She laughs softly as she rolls towards him. "Jarvis, if we're not out of bed in an hour, wake us up." Beside her Tony is already snoring. She studies him, taking in his replete form for an extremely satisfied moment.

Then she frowns. 'Wait a minute...did he just say _honeymoon_?'

What in hell had she just managed to miss?

"Didn't you already take a shower today...aw, man..." Rhodey lifts the paper to hide behind it. "Never mind. I really don't want to know."

"Stop being such a baby," Pepper grumbles as she opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of sparkling water. She glares at it, then carries it over to the table and sets it down in front of Rhodes with a thunk. "Will you open this for me?"

Rhodey does so and hands it back, frowning a little. "Something wrong? You seem kinda tense. So is it just pre-press conference jitters or do I have to go upstairs and beat on Tony for some reason?"

Pepper takes a sip as she sits down at the table. "Yes, beat on him before he goes on national television. That should make the statement we want." Then she sighs and admits, "I think Tony might have proposed while we were upstairs, and I think I might have accidentally accepted."

Rhodey raises his eyebrow. "Accidentally? That takes a whole lot of talent."

Pepper's eyes narrow. "You're not helping here."

Rhodey schools his features. "Sorry. Didn't mean to make light of it if you're serious."

He folds up his paper and sits waiting for her continue expectantly.

"I…It's just that it came totally out of the blue. I guess I really didn't expect it."

"I did," Rhodey tells her bluntly. "Though I'm guessing by your face that you're having some second thoughts about things, finally?"

"What do you mean, 'finally?'" Pepper glares at Rhodes. "Why does it feel like you're waiting for me run from the house screaming when I realize that Tony and I are lovers?"

Rhodey sighs and steeples his fingers, leaning back in his chair before looking at Pepper directly. "Look, I'm not saying that you two aren't good friends, Pepper…and hell, you might even manage make an on and off relationship actually work, if you handle it casually. Just don't even pretend that he's the type of man who'll ever do a good job at the 'family man' thing."

Pepper opens her mouth to protest, but Rhodey blocks her with a pacifying hand. "I'm not saying that he wouldn't try, Pepper. but he'd eventually fuck it up royally and that would absolutely crush him. That being the case, saying 'no' is probably saving him from himself if you know what I mean."

"He's _not_ 'fucked up,'" Pepper snaps. "Tony has _always_ been the kind of man who would make a wonderful husband and father. Always. It's just that before he had no interest in it." Or none that he'd let himself admit to.

And Pepper resents anyone implying differently for even a moment. Especially someone who's supposed to know Tony as well as Rhodey.

The Colonel seems almost blasé, if a little apologetic. "I'm just telling the truth as I see it. It might be different if he weren't so damn flighty...but as you know as well as I do that that's just the price of his kind of genius. Tony's got the attention span of a hamster sometimes, and he knows it. "

Pepper's eyes narrow as she picks up something in Rhodes' tone. 'He's completely trying to bullshit me.' "Stop playing devil's advocate. We both know Tony is loyal, and gentle, and forgiving of the people he loves and trusts. My doubts about marriage have absolutely nothing to do with him. This is about the _timing_. Five days into a relationship while under ridiculous amounts of pressure is _not_ the time to make this kind of lifelong decision."

Rhodey looks at her and then starts to laugh. "Pepper, if you've been lovers five days, then he decided that he's ready to marry you six days ago. That was an agreement the two of us made _years_ ago – that he'd never make a serious move on you unless he was looking for permanence. I promise that Tony takes our promises seriously: if he's proposed then he's thought the issue through."

Pepper stares and Rhodes presses on. "If _you're_ not ready to make the same commitment yet, though, I'm betting he'll understand. All you have to do is be honest and tell him and if you can handle it, suggest a long engagement."

"I don't want to hurt him," she mutters under her breath as she adjusts to this new information.

"Seems to me like that's inevitable. If you can't take him to absolute pieces, it's not the real thing. Hell, look at the shit you two are currently in for exactly that reason…" Rhodey shakes his head, "I mean fuck, Tony _lost it _on candid camera. He actually _cares_ about something and he's been forced to acknowledge it _publicly_. That's got to be the scariest idea to him in the whole fucking world."

Pepper doesn't know what to say to that, mainly because she doesn't agree at all. Well okay, she agrees with the part about Tony and dropping his persona - but then she'd also seen that first hand. She's not as cynical as Tony or Rhodes though; in her opinion love shouldn't actually destroy.

"Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying love should _want_ to leave you in pieces, just that if it can't...well there's not much to it, is there?" Rhodey sighs. "Look you're right about one thing at least for certain...Tony's loyal and though he's not good at it, he tries to be forgiving. Just...don't dither back and forth on the subject, Pepper. There's nothing in the world crueler than doing that to a guy. Telling him no or not yet right away will be kinder than letting him stay excited over a lie for too long."

Pepper nods and finishes her water. "Jarvis, is Tony dressed yet?" Rhodey makes a sound of disgust. "What are you? Ten? We're sleeping together, and more than likely moving in together once this all settles down, and you're going to have to deal with it." Besides, if she goes back to the bedroom before Tony was dressed, they would never actually _make it_ to press conference.

"Pepper, you have to understand things from my perspective. You're kind of like my sister...Would _you_ want to think about your sibling is doing in bed?"

"I don't have a sister, Rhodey." Pepper points out the obvious even though she's a little touched. "Besides, you should be thanking me. Tony was all for coming down here without showers. I nixed the idea."

"Yeah well, he's Tony." Rhodey sighs. "His self assigned mission in life is probably to drive me nuts."

"My mission no, my privilege yes." Tony's voice interrupts them as he comes down the stairs.

"Oh hey, you are dressed." Pepper has to admit that Tony Stark is a _damn_ good looking man in a suit.

"Somehow I didn't think it would be in our best interests to do the press conference in the nude, Pepper," he replies a little dryly. "It just wouldn't have sent quite the message I think you're looking for."

"Probably would have sent the one you want," she tells him before continuing. "I asked Jarvis if you were done upstairs, but I don't think I got an answer. I was going to come find you but I didn't want to get...distracted."

Tony looks at Rhodey. "So are we set up on the patio?" Pepper looked at him in surprise, "The people from PR suggested we try that instead of doing the interview in the boardroom, we hold it outside instead. 'To create a slightly warmer atmosphere to answer questions in,' was the way that Hank said it."

"I've got the media equipment mostly arranged, but not the seating. I wasn't sure about what would be comfortable enough for Pepper with her stuck in a sling." Rhodey looks at her. "Are you gonna be okay on a stool for awhile, Pepper, or do you need something with better support?"

"A real chair's probably a better idea," Pepper concedes. "It hurts to try to sit upright without help. There's a few in the far guest bedroom that are actually antique. They'll look nice for the camera's and still have a nice amount of cushion."

Rhodey nods at the same time he frowns. "I'll get things arranged then…the back bedroom you said?"

"Why are you frowning? I promise the chairs aren't all that heavy."

Rhodey only shrugs. "It's not that, Pepper. I just don't like seeing my friends in pain. Particularly when you're going to be dealing with a bunch of bad tempered jackals on top of everything else."

"The questions are prescreened," Tony interject before Pepper can reply, "and she's got her meds if she needs them. We said this would last forty five minutes and I'll cut it off at exactly that if she's starting to flag. As for anyone not minding their manners, security's been given my express permission to roughly see them out."

"Oh please. Like me need another lawsuit. I'm not even going to be in the same room as said jackals," Pepper says in exasperation. "Sticks and stones, gentlemen. I don't even have to look at the monitor and see them if I don't want to."

Tony laughs softly and reaches over to squeeze her hand. "Pepper, whether you're comfortable with the idea or not, we're both protective of you. Me for obvious reasons and him because he's afraid if you get home it will leave him all alone to babysit me..."

Tony's voice is dry but there's a gentle element of truth underneath irregardless.

Rhodey though seems to think he's teasing. "And dealing with him without his keeper is a fate worse than death Pepper," the colonel informs her mock seriously, rolling his eyes. "Consider my concern a form of enlightened self interest."

Pepper just shakes her head. "As long as no one challenges me to an arm wrestling competition, I can take care of myself. Now, I'm going to go finish getting ready. Can I trust the two of you to behave?'

"Yes, Mom," the two men parrot simultaneously.

She snorts because she really doesn't believe them, then leaves the room.

Once she's gone Rhodey looks at Tony. "She looks...well tired and uncomfortable both. Are you sure it's a good idea to do this now?"

"What other choice do we have?" Tony asks a little sardonically. "This was the best compromise that we could make. This, hopefully, will earn her a little respect and renewed right to privacy."

Rhodey nods. "Do you know what chairs she's talking about?"

Tony Stark guffaws. "It's my damn house, Rhodey. Though if I had my way I'd stick her in a fucking recliner if it wasn't going to provide exactly the wrong sort of impression."

"She'll tell us it isn't necessary. That her desk chair would have worked just fine."

"Rhodey, she's lousy at acting for her own good in anything." Tony runs a hand back through his hair. "I know she'll kick ass for me. If she's going to survive though, she'll have to learn eventually to speak up for _herself_."

"Tony, it's been five days. Less than a week, and she's been injured and on pain killers for most of them. She's had to adjust to a lot of things very quickly, and she's under a lot of stress. Just because she's reverting to old forms doesn't necessarily mean she won't grow out of them given time."

"Time is great. Assuming we have it." Tony sighs again. "Let's just get the chairs set up. there's some in the guest bedroom that will probably do, as long as things don't run too long."

"Great. And don't feel bad about ending the conference if you need to. I mean, you'll probably pay for it in the media, but you're used to that."

"I'm giving them sixty minutes maximum, even if she's handling it fine, and then we're ending it irregardless of how it's gone. If they don't like it, well they already think that I'm crazy."

Rhodey snorts as they head down the hall. "You make it sound like they're wrong."

"They think that it's general. I only suffer from the madness selectively." Tony doesn't sound the slightest bit apologetic.

James Rhodes laughs, "Uh-huh. That I _know_ I don't believe."

"Yeah well, you're in normal company then."

The men retrieve the chairs and set them up on the patio. They fuss over their placement longer than either would ever admit to Pepper, but finally set them so that the seats are slightly angled towards each other while preserving a distance between the two that's less than what might be expected between boss and employee and more than what there'd be between lovers.

"So you're really going to admit you two are a couple on camera then?" Rhodey's voice is a little bit curious.

"Yeah. PR thinks it's a good idea. If we try to deny it or hide it, we'll just have cameras on our trail everywhere we go. Or at least worse than would if we just admitted it. Everyone would be looking for the money shot." Tony sighs and turns one chair a quarter of an inch inwards.

Rhodey studies him a moment. "I can see where that would be bad. The number of reporters who you've assaulted would probably start tallying to nearly as many as the group that you've slept with. It'd be an awkward kind of fan club."

"As long as the one doesn't talk to the other, I'll be happy," Tony says with a shudder.

"I'd worry less about either of them then I would about Pepper. The first deliberate assault on a guy with a big mouth you got away with...the second won't come so easy..." Rhodey smiles. "Which is kind of humorous, actually, since she tends to be pretty territorial about you herself."

Tony's smile is just a little bit self-satisfied. Clearly he's taking Rhodey's words in another direction entirely. "Grandma, Man. for the record you two should be all but dead as much as you seem to be going at it." Rhodey snorts. "Maybe after this thing with the stalker is resolved you should drag your butts both onto a yacht or island or something for a month or three. At least the rest of us won't have to watch and be nauseous. I mean you're basically working of almost ten years of repressed sexual frustration..."

"Once she's been given a clean bill of health by her doctor, that's exactly what I intend to do," Tony confides. "Though I'm probably going to have to schedule it as a research and development block and then sort of drag her onto the jet."

Rhodey nods. "Glad to hear it. I think you could both use some time to deflate. Because this level of stress? Really not healthy for either of you."

"What's not healthy?" Pepper comes out onto the patio, her heels clacking against the tiled floor in a way that makes Tony frown at her.

"What happened to going barefoot?" Tony asks a little sardonically.

Pepper snorts. "You pick your guise, Stark, and I'll select mine." She drops into the chair on the right and looks at Rhodey. "Please...finish what you were saying."

"All the stress you two are under. Still waiting for one of you to snap, though if it's Tony I wonder if we'll even notice."

Pepper rolls her eyes. "He already has. The result apparently turns him normal..."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "I love you too."

Rhodey isn't finished. "I'm just saying once this is over you should probably drag him off somewhere and make him stay in bed for like three days. He's getting pasty looking and that's never a good thing. I saw him sleep deprived in college and it was an utterly terrifying experience."

Pepper's lips twitch. "Three days? Are you sure a week wouldn't be better?"

"If you can knock him out for that long, Potts go right ahead." Rhodey narrows his eyes. "And I meant to keep him in bed to _sleep_, Pepper. So please stop traumatizing me by undressing him with your eyes."

"Tony's the one who started it." Pepper says a little too innocently.

"Excuse me?!" Tony raises an eyebrow. "As has been established on multiple occasions, Pepper, you're the one who first jumped _me_. I was being a gentleman."

Pepper just rolls her eyes. "So, are we set for broadcast?"

Tony nods and settles into the chair to her left. "We're due to go live in two minutes. Are you making the opening statement or am I?"

"You'd better do it. Your behavior is what's under the microscope right now." She frowns. "Where are your sunglasses?"

"I'm not wearing them this time. Camera glare. As long as you don't see it as my hijacking what was originally supposed to be _your_ party, I'll start us out. Though I'll probably do the one about your health for our very first question."

Tony looks at his watch. 'Thirty seconds.' He gestures at the screen. Then the speaker crackles to life. "Do we have you Sir?" A voice inquires after perhaps half a second.

"Affirmative," Tony informs the speaker in front of them as his public mask falls into place. "All right people, let's get this gawk fest started..."


	12. Chapter 12

As a rule, Pepper tries not to hate people, though there have been exceptions to that rule. Even then, though, she's mostly tried to put a polite face on it and loathe them in private. However, there's a blonde sitting in the second row of the press corps who's got a smirk on her face that Pepper would dearly love to remove. Preferably with a fist.

Christine Everhart is really getting on her nerves.

That would be the height of incivility though, and moreover, she's not prepared for the kind of fervor THAT would stir up - "Ironman's Inamorata Involved in Streetside Brawl" - so she keeps her face as patient and open as she can while she waits for Tony to finish his opening statement. As soon as he's done with that, she gets to explain the severity of damage to her shoulder, and then they'll try to explain their relationship as clearly as they can while essentially preserving their privacy.

"So as has now been confirmed...I'm a bit of a caveman. And not just where the creation of my armor is concerned." Tony's voice is wry...though he's smirking almost typically. Ten minutes in and he's got the audience eating literally out of the palm of his hand his hand "But for the moment I've agreed to hang back up my proverbial cudgel, with apologies already made and accepted by the gentleman whom I injured."

'To the tune of 600,000,' Pepper thinks wryly.

But now it's her turn to talk. "Not that Tony's response wasn't understandable, even if it was inappropriate." Pepper tilts her head towards her injured shoulder. "I was shocked myself to find out that dislocated shoulders aren't as easily remedied as they are on medical dramas." There's scattered laughter through the crowd, who have - as stated - been warmed up by Tony. Pepper relaxes just a little bit more at this evidence that not everyone is out for blood. "It was a scary situation, for all of us. One that perhaps reveals a danger inherent to the free press most people wouldn't expect to encounter." Pepper's voice becomes stern. "Irregardless the situation has been dealt with by all parties involved, and now that things have calmed, it is time to let the past be the past and look forward to the things in life that still need seeing to. It's time to get down to business again."

"What Ms. Potts means of course, is that she can't wait to get me out of her hair." There's more laughter at Tony's aside. Clearly her bordering on workaholic tendencies have been played up in her absence.

Pepper snorts. "Yes well you have a talent for many things, Mr Stark, but a quiet work environment has never been anywhere on the list." She looks out at the audience and winks. "At least we're no longer at the stage that I have to wear earplugs...though the lack of explosions is almost as disconcerting as their presence sometimes." Again more laughter. With the exception of a few exceptions, the press seems to be responding very favorably to their dynamic.

Basically their typical banter, edited to be appropriate for the ears of the public.

Pepper grows more serious then as she prepares to open the next subject. She and Tony agreed that she should broach the topic of their relationship as a way of signaling that it was something she's actively involved in, something she's chosen and supports.

And she'd lost the coin toss. Literally. The big coward.

"Mr. Stark and I are both very aware that one of the reasons so many of you are here today is because you have questions about the intensity of his reaction to seeing me hurt, and what that does or does not indicate about our current relationship." The crowd goes quiet, she leans forward just enough to look confident without coming off as aggressive. "At this time we see no reason to deny that we have both reached a place where we want to explore how our past work relationship might become something more."

She's chosen all her words very carefully, but she still finds herself speaking slowly in case something jumps out at her as the wrong thing to say. "There's many people who work for Stark Industries who can confirm the closeness of our work relationship, and for several months we've both independently wondered if we could make the transition to a more personal dynamic outside the office as well. With everything that my accident revealed, this seemed like as good a time as any to set aside what has until last week been a strictly platonic relationship. We're going to take things slowly and see what naturally develops."

The audience at the other end is waiting on nearly bated breath. "That stated..." Tony says with the a grin that only Pepper knows is forced,. "We're requesting that all of your remember how it felt as teenagers to be spied on by what ever busy-bodies you might have been tailed by or cursed with. Please remember that feeling, and respect our privacy, and Pepper's in particular. She hasn't spent as many years as I have smiling for the cameras. And it hard to cope when injured as it is, without always feeling like you're being stalked."

There's a certain hushed stir from the crowd at that particular turn of phrase. The situation with the death threats Pepper has been receiving is one thing they're not addressing today. After some discussion with the police also on the case it's been decided not to fuel whoever was doing it by providing what amounts to more free publicity.

"We've decided to continue working together as we always have," Pepper continues. "Our mutual love for our jobs and commitment to Stark Industries is a strong shared bond between us. When I return to work after my medical leave of absence, you can expect to see business as usual. No long lunches, no misappropriation of company funds for private us - not that Tony would ever need to resort to that." There's a few people nodding in the audience.

"Insinuations that the late nights for which I am paid are due to anything other than the fact that I am employed by a man with two jobs that both require a hundred percent of my attention at times, will be met with inquiries from _my_ lawyers. because I have worked hard for the position I hold now within Stark Industries, and though the relationship between Mr. Stark and I has changed, that hasn't. In fact, in some ways it's bound to make my job harder."

Tony finishes this subject with a mock-whispered confession. "For those of you who have not worked with me long enough to already know this, I suggest you _not_ piss her off by assuming she's anything but profession. Because while she is normally infinitely patient, her temper, once roused, is actually a little intimidating. And the network of social contacts that she's developed in all these years of working for me could quite frankly put some small countries to shame."

That statement causes a low rumble personal acknowledgement in the crowd. for the most part people nod, though Pepper can see Christine Everhart turn to the seatmate to her left and whisper something that looks scathing.

Well it's not like she expected the woman would take the situation lying down.

"Well now that we've both made official statements, why don't we begin with your questions. Mr Lowry why don't you start us off with the first one." She smiles at the very young, very awkward obviously elated man in the front row.

Pepper was a little surprised, when the feeds first came up, to see the photographer who'd started this whole mess sitting in the front not just with a camera, but with a microphone in his hand. Last she'd heard, while Tony was apologizing through official channels, he was still personally pissed off at the dark haired near teenager that had been the perpetrator of all of this.

But Pepper doesn't detect an ounce of similar frustration in Tony now, and she's pretty sure that she knows him well enough that she'd realize if he was lying through his teeth.

Of course, then Mr. Lowry speaks, and Pepper understand the change immediately.

"Thank you Ma'am' Though first, I just wanted to apologize to you, Ms. Potts. There's been no time for us to meet since your accident and I know that I've not only caused you a major inconvenience, but personal pain as well."

Pepper feels her lips quirk at this apparent show of humanity and humility. It seems out of place, but she has no qualms about welcoming it.

"Thank you, Mr. Lowry. Apology accepted." This isn't the time and place to go into how she doesn't hold him personally accountable for her shoulder, but because of this she might end up sending him a note later, explaining her viewpoint of things and urging him to be a little more cautious in his pursuit of photographs in the future.

Because Mr Lowry is a lot of things, but at the top of the list in simply young.

The man smiles back genuinely. "Then I'll get to my first question. It can hardly be denied that your relationship - professional or not - has had a large effect on Stark Industries through the years. Out of curiosity though, why has a woman who was, according to my sources, originally pursuing a doctorate chosen to maintain a middle level administrative position?"

Okay, they'd had questions like this submitted. Pepper knows the answer to this. "Yes, you're right that when I started working for Stark Industries' accounting department, I was also enrolled in a doctorate program through Stanford. However, when Mr. Stark hired me, I found the new duties I was given to be not just sufficiently challenging on a personal level, but mentally challenging as well. I know many of you probably imagine I spend my days picking up coffee and dry cleaning, but that's really just a fraction of my duties. Working as Mr. Stark's personal assistant was a crash course in advanced economics, business strategy, data collection and flow and management systems, as well as dashes of sociology and, when it came to dealing with Mr. Stark, sometimes reverse psychology." She gives a one-shouldered shrug. "Frankly, if I'd stayed in my doctorate program, not only would I have been focused on a much narrower curriculum, but I think my brain would have exploded from too much new information."

Tony chuckles beside her and makes his own interjection. "One of Pepper's great strengths is probably her love of supposedly insurmountable challenges. Which I'm sure I provided. Some people it seems, aren't happy unless they're out charming dragons. That stated she has been informed on multiple occasions that if she wants to reassume her quest for the degree, she's free to do so with the full support of the company she works for. Stark Industries has one of the most innovative subsidy programs in the country for helping our employers pursue continuing education."

Pepper fights not to roll her eyes. 'Charming dragons indeed...' "As for why I've stayed in this position so long, Mr. Lowry, it's really because as the company grows and develops, so do the challenges. Simply stated, this job has never, ever been boring for me." She shoots an amused glance at the man beside her, again interjecting a bit of banter that until recently they'd kept private. "Also I'm unconvinced that Mr. stark can be trusted to pay proper respect to the mundane routine of maintaining his paperwork.. I've seen his desk after I take even a short vacation, and the mounting piles of memos and briefs to be signed is definitely not pretty."

Tony laughs aloud and leans forward. "What she's not really admitting too is that she's a genius for handling the administrative side of my world, which I adore her for because it frees me up to lead with a mind aimed toward the future and one foot firmly planted in our research and development division."

Pepper gives her half-shrug again. It's more or less true. They've always had in some ways, a balanced partnership. Each with weaknesses that are firmly upheld by the other's strengths. "I suppose if you asked me, I suppose you could say I make sure that Mr. Stark is always free to do the things that frankly, no one else but someone with his talents can do."

There are more nods, and then another reporter stands up. "Ms. Potts - Thomas Nguyen for the Chronicle. It's been reported that since you started working for Mr. Stark that Stark Industries has increased its charitable giving by and average of two percent a year. Care to comment on what brought this about?"

Pepper and Tony look at each other; he shrugs. They'd both known about this one too.

Tony fields it. "Anyone who can work for me for as many years as Ms. Potts has managed without a mental breakdown, is more than capable of convincing the Board of Directors that charitable donations make up for themselves in new stockholders and good publicity. Not only that, but she did all the work for them, setting up a donation matching system where the employees in all of our headquarters around the world raise funds in their communities. The fundraising board of our subsidiaries report to the Board of Directors how much is raised, and the company matches it. Those fundraising boards then decide whether they will donate money to their communities - which many do - or to global charities. It allows employees to be proud of the company they work for. And what Board of Directors would turn that down? Happy employees are productive employees, and more loyal to the company that employs them. And the donations are all tax deductible too. Ms. Potts is quite the diabolical genius." Tony's words are distinctly proud.

Pepper rolls her eyes. "For what - realizing that good work always starts in the arena of enlightened self interest?" She shoots her lover a self satisfied smile. "Like, say when a person of means becomes concerned with the safety situation in the failing neighborhood of one of his more stubborn employees and decides to invest heavily not in the destruction but rather in the rejuvenation of her entire community?"

The press is watching this exchange like some kind of tennis match. Tony swallows hard, and when he turns to look at her his eyes are just a little bit panicked. "I'd say that employee has an outstanding boss, wouldn't you? Someone less concerned with honoring the choices she makes would have demanded she move."

The audience on the other side is beginning to titter.

Pepper clears her throat. "It's really neither here nor there at present. Next question please."

They cover a few more questions about Pepper - things like when she expects to return to work, and under what conditions. Simple things, really. Questions that show an interest in her, in how her mind works, in her personal preferences. It's like everyone's reaching into a bag and pulling out pieces of a puzzle and they aren't having luck getting the pieces to match up.

A young woman to Christine's right raises her hand two questions from the end of their list. "In the years you've known each other...what events or challenges have you faced that you feel have most effected the way that you view one another?"

Pepper thinks grimly 'Afghanistan.' But to her surprise Tony laughs aloud. "We once got to run off a grizzly bear together, at what amounted to an impromptu, sudden-death corporate retreat..."

The reporter looks at him in utter confusion. "Plane crash," Tony informs her simply. "About a year after we started working together. A Cessna went down while we were in transit from one base to another, and we were forced to make our way across what felt like half of Alaska in order to get help. I came to greatly respect Pepper's stubborn resolve in particular at this time."

"Can't imagine how you kept warm from that." Christine Everhart's voice echoes off the microphone oddly. Pepper's not sure the comment was meant to be heard, but apparently the woman's habit of under the breath comments has finally caught her out.

It seems like the room goes quiet. Pepper knows Tony certainly freezes up. She glances over to see him tense and pissed off. He opens his mouth to say something but she reaches over and lays her hand on his arm, making him pause. When he glances at her she shakes her head so slightly that she doubts it's caught by the camera.

Then, with as much calm and dignity she can muster, she turns back to the camera. "While that was not strictly a question, I'll address the issue raised by Ms. Everhart. For one thing, it was in July in southern Alaska. It got cold at night, but it wasn't unbearable and we were able to pull coats and blankets out of the plane. We weren't wandering around without gear designed for cold weather. Secondly, we were both injured to the point where sex was the last thing on our minds, and if I felt like making my personal medical records open the public, Lastly, after three days of hard work and no showers, we both stank. Not exactly the most romantic of experiences, I can assure you. Did you have anything else to say? Or were you done asking tacky questions?"

Everhart crosses her arms. "You honestly expect us to believe you're a 'new couple' when it's a matter of record you also once worked for Taylor Modeling Agencies from age sixteen to twenty? I remind you that this same organization was disband in 1995 after its owners were convicted of creating child porn for various members of Southern California's upper class?"

Pepper shrugs. "That's certainly old dirt. As a court case, those records are open to the public. Anyone who's interested can take a look at those files - including mine - and see what jobs I was given. Most of them were for the junior and misses sections of local department stores. nothing as sleazy as you are trying to imply."

"Yet Mr Stark was one of the people identified as potential people of interest in the case as well. A rather larger coincidence if you ask me." Christine crosses her arms "We're to believe there's no connection between that and the fact that a previous unknown girl with a foster care background suddenly earned a highly coveted position at an Ivy League school ahead of thousands of other applicants? And then went on to pursue a position that nets her a salary nearly five times the average for similar administrative positions?"

Pepper's mouth tightens. "And we're all supposed to listen to bitter grapes from a woman who conducts interviews on her back?"...that's what she wants to say. That's what she_ really _wants to say. Because attacking Tony is going way too far.

Because disproved or not this kind of accusation will haunt Tony forever, and Christine Everhart clearly _knows_ that.

"If you're implying that foster children aren't capable of maintaining the grades needed to get scholarships from Ivy League institutions or that they aren't willing to work for the money to cover what those scholarships don't, I pity you for being so small minded, Ms. Everhart. This is America, and here hard work can still get you far in this country."

Her carefully worded reply doesn't seem to placate Tony at all. He leans forward in his seat and addresses the other woman directly. "In my experience Ms Everhart, most people also don't choose to sleep with men they really believe to be child molesters ...so unless you're going to explain why you did or you're prepred to claiming you found out afterwards and you can back it up with _proof_..." Tony's face is blank but his eyes are furious. "I would suggest that you find better things to do than try and slander those who have been born without privilege just because they might have proven to be of longer lasting value than you."

"Tony," Pepper whispers softly. "I think that's enough." She understands his fury, but they're supposed to be mending his reputation here, not trashing Christine's.

The woman's just effectively ended her career with the legitimate media as it is.

Before Tony can reply, the lights to their left blink on and off repeatedly, and in their individual ear mikes Jarvis speaks. "Sir, i apologize for interrupting, but there is a phsyical therapist with ID from Ms Pott's physical therapy providers in a car at the front gate. She claims to have a few items for Pepper's therapy that they were unable to leave behind yesterday. Do you wish me to let her in?"

Tony turns around and finds Rhodey with his eyes. The other man is similarly wired and understands Tony' request without any issue. He quickly leaves the patio to go sign for the package if needed.

But when Tony turns back around to the camera Pepper can see that he hasn't been at all distracted from his fury with Everhart. "Next question," she says quickly, hoping to move on from this before it can escalate into all-out war. That sort of thing is much better when it's handled _quietly_. Because there's no way in hell she's going to get him to back off of this if Christine attacks either on of them again. To hell with the fact that they're on national television.

The man beside her is thrumming with furious agitation. And shifting like he's without anything to ground him. 'Fuck it.' Pepper decides. National television or not, she reaches over and simply intermeshes their hands.

"I will say this once," Pepper says quietly, but with her head held high. "I have earned every single penny of my paycheck through hard work and dedication. When any of you become a secretary, an office manager, a personal accountant, a social coordinator, a part time PR rep, part time nurse, who is on call every hour of the day every day of the week, then you can question my salary. If any of you doubt my effectiveness at my job, I will arrange with the PR department to have one reporter follow me through one week of my responsibilities. My past is an open book, including the matters Ms. Everhart raised. But despite all that, I am still a private citizen and I will not stand for seeing my good name or the name of the man I love dragged through the mud because of what amounts to pure pettiness. Now can everyone start acting like grown-ups instead of slighted thirteen your girls, please."

The press doesn't seem to have a suitable reply to that. Nor does Tony, who's not even looking at her. He's looking at...

"Oh God." He's looking at the woman in the patio doorway wearing fresh nurses scrubs and holding a gun in her hand.

Pepper swallows hard and her grip on Tony's hand turns crushing. What happens next happens almost in slow motion. Pepper will later admit she remembers the entire string of events as if she'd been the one watching them on a black and white TV.

Two shots ring out in a row, in terrifyingly rapid procession.

Pepper doesn't see or feel the impact of either of them, because before the first can even finish resounding her body's covered as Tony yanks them both out of their chairs and drops them to the ground. She does feel the way they hit the cement, and she thinks she might scream as her dislocated shoulder erupts into waves of fire that travel up and down her nerve endings.

She hears a sick cracking sound that makes her think of a cantaloupe hitting the ground and splitting open, followed but a harsh grunt from Tony. But she can't see anything because her head is being held against Tony's chest and the strength with which it's being kept there at least reassures her that he's not dead.

She can hear his heart beat though, and wild commotion from the TV, as reporters watch and someone hollers 'call 911'.

Then Tony goes limp as she hears another fleshy thump of something hitting the balcony tiles a few yards away and feet are moving closer and the she's trapped under the weight of Tony's attempted protection...

OR at least she is until James Rhodes comes to both of their rescues.

"Tony." Rhodey's anxious voice is all she can see as she tries to move. "_Tony_!?." There's no reply from the man draped out on top of her, which scares her even worse than the woman with the gun did.

Pepper heaves the weight of Tony to one side, then forces herself upright through sheer force of will, and snaps, "Jarvis, cut the wireless connection to the video," before she bends over Tony.

Her right side is in agony so strong her head pounds with it, but she just runs her left hand over Tony's face, then his chest, looking for injuries. The sudden silence as the video monitors turn off makes the patio terrifyingly quiet.

All she can hear any more is the sound of movement over where Rhodey is and the sound of her own frantic heartbeat.

"Tony?" She can't see anything, but she remembers that sound she'd heard. "Rhodey, I think he hit his head," she whispers as she cups the side of Tony's face. She can feel his exhalations against the inside of her wrist and nearly sobs in relief.

Rhodey's come to kneel on Tony's other side, and is too busy checking his best friend's breathing to give any reply. "Tony, man wake up and look at me. Come on here Stark, you're seriously scaring the shit outta Pepper."

The Colonel has a rapidly swelling bruise of his own on his upper right temple, as if he's been cold-cocked by someone.

"I'm sorry...God I'm sorry." The man's voice is hoarse and frantic, his ands are actually shaking. I didn't...she had ID, she said she just needed proof of delivery, I didn't expect her to coldcock me."

Pepper turns...just enough to see the spot where the nurse had been. Rhodey hadn't pulled any punches. There's a single shot obviously aimed straight through her head. She's no threat anymore.

Somehow that doesn't make Pepper feel any better.

"911," Rhodey snaps aloud. "Christ I should have known...I let her right past me."

"Jarvis..."

"I'm already in contact with the 911 call center, Ms. Potts," the AI replies softly, calmly. "An ambulance is in route and should be here within ten minutes. Colonel Rhodes they suggest you follow you mandatory training for the treatment of shock and apply pressure to stop bleeding if it is necessary."

Pepper shudders, then reaches out and shakes Rhodey's arm. "I can't find any obvious bullet wound, though I think I heard him hit his head when he pushed both of us down onto the concrete."

It had just happened so fast. She shivers again, convulsively.

The other man has taken Tony's wrist. Is checking his pulse. Once he finds it he carefully cups the other man's head. Then he curses. "We need ice, Pepper, and some kind of bandage. He's got a serious gash on his head."

"The first aid kits are all in the basement," Pepper whispers. God, she hates it when he has scalp wounds. They bleed so _much_ and you could never know until they woke up whether the damage was superficial or life threatening...

'Get a grip, Potts.' She forces herself to bear down on her fear and push it aside. It doesn't matter right now. She's fixed Tony up before, this is nothing new, she can do this and then get sick to her stomach later like she usually does. "I'll go get it." She uses the arm the one chair still upright to get herself to her feet. The rush of pain she feels makes her dizzy and she sways for a few seconds.

"Ow." The next sound she hears makes her drop back down to the ground. Brown eyes crack open. Tony looks at her hard, for several seconds, then frowns. "Okay I love you Pep...but double vision sucks. I just can't handle two of you."

"Shh..." She places trembling hands on his cheeks. "Tony...Tony, you can't do that again." It's just now hitting her, now that his eyes are open , that he essentially just stepped in front of a bullet for her when he wasn't wearing his goddamned suit

He could have died. Damnit. He could have died doing that..

Her lover only blinks at her owlishly. "Oh god...I was wrong. There is definitely something worse then Double-Pepper. Now there are three." From the way his eyes refuse to track completely it's increasingly apparent that being awake does not mean being in full possession of his faculties.

"And we're all going to take care of you," she promises softly. "How's your head?"

"Freight train hit it. They really shouldn't be allowed in the house." His eyes start to slide shut again.

"No, no, no. Keep your eyes open." Pepper glances at Rhodey, then back down at Tony. "Com'on, Anthony. Eyes front and center."

"I'll get the kit," Rhodey says. "We also need to get him covered and his feet up. Bleeding's not bad but he could go into shock."

Tony's eyes are slowly drifting closed. "Anthony Edward Stark!" She pulls out the big guns this time.

Tony looks at her with an almost wounded expression. "You don't have to yell. In case it missed your notice I just got shot at, and now I have a headache."

"You'll be getting a lot more than that from me, Stark, if you fall back asleep."

She watches Tony blink again, then lick his lips. "Don't think I have the energy right now for kinky..." His head lulls toward the woman who'd shot him. "She better be dead."

"She is. Seems she pissed Rhodey off." Pepper's voice is trembling, but she doubts he can tell. "Do you hurt anywhere other than your head, Tony? I need to know so I can tell the paramedics when they get here."

"Left butt cheek." He wheezes a little bit shakily. "God if I got shot in the ass, Pepper, just go ahead and kill me.."

She laughs wetly. "You deserve it, idiot. Bullets bounce off your suit, not off of you."

"Superheroes do not get shot in the ass." He groans and rolls to his stomach. "Rhodey's going to laugh his head off at me."

"Stop moving," she warns him. "We don't know if it's safe."

Tony snorts. "Or what, Potts? You're gonna spank me?" The left side of his pants are dry. No apparent rend in the fabric. Still, the move takes the pressure off of something though, because Tony Stark sighs in ragged relief. "Thank God...just numb. It's getting better." His hand reaches out for hers. "Are...are _you _okay? I didn't fuck up you shoulder too badly?"

"I'm fine," she lies. Because compared to what could have happened, she _is_ fine. That doesn't mean she feels fine though. What she feels is slightly nauseous and high on adrenaline.

Tony's eyes narrow. "You're lying." He informs her baldly. "But it's been a lousy day so I'm not going to call you on it." He manages to role to his side, facing her with his injured side toward the top. "So...how'd you like your first ever major press conference?"

"Loved it. Especially the part where I seduced you as a minor. That would explain how we have a teenage daughter, I suppose."

"I don't think she was implying that you seduced me Pepper. I think she was saying that the opposite occurred and then you black mailed me." He sighs. "God that woman is a _bitch_."

"I prefer thinking you couldn't resist me over the choice where I made you an offer you couldn't refuse."

He snorts. "Well look at it this way. She just tried to publicly besmirch a man who might have just actually earned his title of modern king Arthur." Then he groans. "Oh God the press. I've been shot on national television. they're going to stalk me for months."

"Unfortunately yeah, probably." She strokes her thumb against his temple. "It might be the right time to go sailing or visit Europe for awhile."

"I'm all over that." Tony agree with her softly. "It's been literally a decade since I last spent any time in Italy." He sighs deeply. "My...my mom's family owns a little vineyard there. It's still listed under her maiden name - off the books for the most part."

"Really?" He nods and she leans forward to kiss his forehead. "So nobody knows?"

Tony shakes his head, then winces. "Well some of the locals...but they always respected our privacy. Mom and Dad were really good to the town...we visited almost every summer."

Pepper nods, a little, shifts so he can lay with his head in her lap. "I'd like to see where you used to run around as a kid. Well assuming it's still livable there."

"Should be." Tony's eyes start to drift shut again. She pokes him gently, "Stark you can't go to sleep."

He groans but opens his eyes. "You know what, Potts? You're bossy."

She snorts at that. "You're just figuring that out?"

He shakes his head. "Just getting in the obligatory moment of complaining...his head turns to look at the body on the floor. "Okay this is weird...a nurse neither of us have ever met is the one who tries to knock you off?"

Pepper shrugs. "Maybe it'll make more sense when we find out who she is. somehow I'm doubting that ID is valid."

"It's really over then." Tony is starting to shake, she's not sure if it's with shock or with physical relief. She frowns. "Are you cold, Tony, or just relieved?"

"A little of both..." Tony admits. "I'm probably gonna be stuck in bed a day or two, cause right now I'm pretty sure I've got at least a minor concussion."

"Minor my ass." She informs him calmly. "You do realize after this you are never, ever allowed to give me shit about what I did in Alaska ever again?"

"Enlightened self interest." He says with a sigh. "How many years did it take us to figure thing out...? I'm never doing that again."

"Just expect to taking orders for the next week at least." She warns him candidly. "You're now on the shit list until you heal too."

He whines. Tony Stark literally whines. "Hey no fair. By my tally it's my turn...you got to lead last time."

"Life's not always fair." She leans over to lightly brush her lips against his.

Outside the mansion they hear the sirens approaching, Tony sighs in annoyance. "God I hate fucking hospitals."

"Yeah, well tough. That's what you get for risking your life," she says mercilessly. "And you're not really in a condition to argue with me right now."

"Bossy, Potts." He murmurs softly. "In case I haven't mentioned it lately in all the hub-bub, I love you."

Her entire face softens. "I love you too, Tony."

"You and me. Yacht most definitely."

"As soon as the doctor clears it," she tells him simply.

"Clears it for you or for me?"

"For you. If you're taking me out on a yacht, then I plan on doing absolutely nothing for as long as I'm there."

"A noble plan." He agrees almost solemnly. "I'll have the staff stock up sunscreen in bulk."

"You do that." Pepper looks up as she catches a flash of movement from the corner of her eye. The paramedics - led by Rhodey and several armed and wary police officers - are wheeling a gurney towards them. "Be nice, the nice medics are here."

"I'm always nice." He tells her woundedly, then he tries to sit up, clearly intending to walk to the ambulance on his own to feet.

"Anthony Stark!"

"It's just a scalp wound. A lot of blood yes, but not even three Peppers anymore."

"This is what I meant by telling you to be good," she hisses. She only has to exert the barest pressure to get him to lie back again, which further proves her point.

He groans again. "God, you're going to be impossible, aren't you."

She snorts. "No worse, Stark, then you were when the injured one was me."

"I'm doomed." Tony says with absolutely finality, thought he doesn't try and sit up again.

"And better be damn happy about it," she whispers as the paramedics reach them.

He kisses their still entwined hands. "Every second, of every day, of every week."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Yeah, you read right. One down, three to go. ;-) Thanks to everyone who has read and commented faithfully, you have no idea how much we appreciated it.

Oo00oo00oo00

"You're dripping water on me," Pepper murmurs with a lazy smile as she finally notices the nuisance. The sun is warm and the soft rocking of the yacht is just about the best sleep aid she's ever experienced. It's not surprising that she's dozed off again, but even so, it can't possibly be time for Tony to slather her with more triple-strength sunscreen…though she's not adverse to the idea of letting him get his hands all over her.

"You look hot," is Tony's wicked reply as he takes a seat on the deck chair beside her. His swimming trunks are wet and starting to get clammy. Without opening her eyes, Pepper moves one leg and playfully pushes at him. Predictably, Tony responds by more or less pouncing on her. They tussle for a few seconds before Tony pins her arms by her head and leans in for a nice long, deep kiss.

"If your objective was to cool me down, you're going about it the wrong way, Mr. Stark," Pepper murmurs when he pulls away. She finally opens her eyes, only to see Tony's face right above hers. He's staring down at her with delight and a seed of wicked intent.

"You're getting stronger," he tells her as his hands slip down from her wrists to her shoulders, then around her waist as he turns them so that they're spooning on the reclined deck chair. "I actually had to try to pin you that time."

She shoots the arm in question backwards, elbowing him in the chest just hard enough to get back at him for that. "You're getting me all wet – and not in a good way," she adds before he can ask why she's complaining.

"Yeah well, you've been napping forever, Lazy. And Anabeth says that if we're careful to limit your time in water that's over your head, there's no reason you can't come see the sea turtles with me. She'll even count it as your physical therapy for the day."

"Sea turtles?" Pepper perks up a little at that. When Tony had left her on the deck with a magazine and a large bottle of water, he'd intended to do some jet skiing. She hadn't expected to come back with tales of the wildlife.

"Yup. I was talking to some of the other tourists, and apparently there's about a dozen of them who live about two miles from where we're moored. If we kill the motor on the dingy and paddle in the last eighth of a mile or so, then we should be able to get close enough to get a good look. I've been told that they don't even mind having people in the water with them as long as you don't get loud or aggressive."

"Well, it might be difficult, but I guess I can contain my aggression," Pepper sighs teasingly as she turns in Tony's arms. "Of course, that just means I'll have to let it all out on you later."

Tony's snort is clear indication of his assessment of that particular threat. "I'm shaking in my boots. Now let's get going Pep, the evening's a'wasting."

Pepper studies her lover's eager face for a moment, amazed by the way a few weeks of quiet on the open ocean have affected him. It's not just that he's calmer. After those last frantic weeks after...after their press conference had been crashed, anyone would be calmer. This Tony Stark is something he hasn't been before: assured of their mutual physical and mental well being and therefore at _peace_.

She has to admit she likes how it looks on him.

It isn't just that they are now able to move around without gathering a huge following of flashbulbs. He's not thinking about the interviews at the house...and on the phone...and the internet questions, and the business, and his missions....

Hell, this isn't so much a vacation as it is a mental health holiday. And its affect shows in Tony, from the sparkle that can usually be found in his eyes to the way his posture has gradually relaxed. Pepper hadn't even realized how tightly he'd been holding himself _all_ the time until the evening about a week ago that she noticed that an evening of playing cards together left him just about as limp and content as a bout of intense sex.

'I'm glad that we did this.' She'd thought he was crazy, when he'd strode into her office six weeks ago and informed her he was canceling all their non-emergency plans for the next ten or so weeks. Or rather, he'd told her that he was declaring a boycott on any plans that couldn't be handled via computer or remote video conference from the deck of his yacht.

"You look like you fell off your jet ski," she teases, ruffling his damp hair. Touching him still feels like a newly granted luxury, one she never seems to tire of.

He chuckles, leaning forward for a kiss. "Fell off, no. But I did take a swim."

"Breast stroke?" she murmurs evilly as she returns the light kiss.

He smacks her ass lightly before that. "No Potts, that one comes _late_r."

"How much later?" She says it to tease, not because she's starved for him. So much time alone - away from the everyday stresses that had become routine - has done a lot for that side of her. Not that she's sick of him by any means. But she's not so constantly desperate anymore.

"Depends, I guess, on just how bad you want to see those turtles." Tony's voice is definitely amused, but it's also taking on a familiar rumble, one that sends pleasant shivers down her spine, even as she shakes her head at him.

"I suppose I shouldn't tease you when I'm still recovering from last night, but it's just so much fun." Her fingers run down his face, tease him by scraping through his goatee. "Let's plan on seeing the turtles, and then maybe getting some dinner. Because I'm starting to get hungry. After that, we'll see just how...aggressive...I'm feeling tonight."

Tony nods, looking only mildly disappointed. "All right then, go get your stuff together and meet me on the starboard side in a couple of minutes. Oh - and don't forget to grab the water proof sun block, I don't want you getting sunburned again."

Pepper shudders theatrically. "Does it look like I _do_?" Her last sunburn had made even the necessary cold showers painful. And did she even get a tan out of it? No. Just more freckles, a fact that delighted Tony, though she'd never figured out exactly why.

It's not as if she didn't already have more than he could hope to count.

She drops another light kiss on his lips, then pushes at his chest. "Com'on, let me up."

He nods, moving back carefully out of her space. A hand is offered to help pull her up and onto her feet.

She smiles as she stands, and then stretches, raising both arms high over her head. Luckily her bikini halter stays in place, otherwise they might never get off the boat. "Should I get anything for you while I'm grabbing my stuff?"

"Nah. Just pack light. Okay, maybe it wouldn't hurt to also as the steward for a couple bottles of ice water. I've got to take care of something myself and then I'll meet you out by the jet ski dock."

"Not gonna keep me company while I pack?" She asks him bemused, not at all unaware of the bulge in the front of his swim trunks.

Tony shakes his head, blushing a little as gestures down to the slight bulge in the front of his swim trunks. "Since you're still 'recovering' from last night, I think that I'm just going to hit the head for five minutes and maybe try and take the edge off before we head back out. Don't want to traumatize the marine life."

Pepper bites her lip thoughtfully. "Maybe I should have phrased that, 'Can I grab anything for you while I'm getting my stuff.'"

Tony smirks, clearly loving her playful attitude. "If you're offering a handjob, I'd love it. But to warn you, I was actually planning to pull out the keys to that trunk you've been trying not to stare at all week when we get back, so don't do anything you think will wear you out in the long term." Tony had brought home a bunch of bags from the local sex shop shortly before they'd left their last port, and then maddeningly dumped them all in a small lockable trunk, refusing to let her see anything that was actually inside.

"Oooh...now you have me intrigued, Mr. Stark. I might take you up on that after dinner." Pepper grins and starts walking backwards towards the door that leads down to their quarters.

Tony grins, "That was my hope. Now am I supposed to be following you back to the bedroom or just heading to the nearest Head?"

"I think you should definitely consider playing follow the leader."

He snorts, but trails along willingly, pulling loose the drawstring on his swimming trousers the minute the master stateroom door closes behind them.

8888888

About three hours later, they're back on the yacht, and Tony has arranged for a candlelit dinner in the main cabin as a surprise. They sit on the floor, leaning against the couch, and feed each other bites of food from the platters spread across the coffee table. There's no plates for either of them, just the communal platters full of things meant to be eaten by hand.

Pepper smiles and shakes her head as she scraps a glob of humus across a piece of homemade flat bread. "You know, there's just something really sensual, Stark, about eating off fine china with your fingers."

Tony smiles as he grabs a hunk of bread for himself, "Yes, well I wanted to give you an anniversary dinner you're not likely to forget. I'm hoping this was unusual enough to fit the bill."

"What? Anniversary?" Pepper sets down her glass of wine. It's not any kind of monthly anniversary since they've gotten together, and other than that, she can't figure out what kind of anniversary would be worth celebrating.

Tony smiles into his goblet. "So you don't know then? Ah well. Think about it awhile, Pep. I'm sure it'll come back to you. After all, it happens the same day every year."

"Oh no, that's not fair." She smacks him lightly as she turns to face him, propping her arm along the seat of the couch.

"What? I'm not allowed to let you sweat a bit?" His eyes and gentle smirk are mostly tender.

"Nooo," she exaggerates, then she huffs comically. "At least not for this particular reason."

He sighs in disappointment, "Yeah well if you insist on me spilling the beans, maybe this little gift will help you remember." He reaches to one side and lifts up a box she hadn't noticed before, setting it down in front of her and leaning back to watch her open it.

It's about six inches by six inches square, a simple white number with a removable top.

Inside is a small canister of pepper spray and a note that reads simply, "Not that you ever needed this to live up to your nickname." Pepper laughs, even though she's deeply touched. "How is it you can remember the day I stormed into your office like a madwoman, but you constantly forget when my birthday is?"

"Because the former permanently bettered both of our lives, Pep."

"And my birthday didn't?" Still, Pepper leans over and kisses his cheek, because this is the sort of behavior that ought to be encouraged, and because it is such a sweet gesture.

"Your birthday gave you to the world, Pepper. The day you stormed into my office I like to think that the universe gave you to _me_."

"You've been watching too much Lifetime, Stark." But there's a soft sheen in Pepper's eyes, and her entire face is just _glowing_.

Tony leans forward to brush her lips with his. "Yeah well, when I was convalescing from my slight concussion a few weeks ago, someone refused to let me do anything more stressful than watch cable TV. So it could reasonably be argued that you planted the seeds to this sapiness yourself."

"It's not my fault that concussion made you loopy for a few days. You were supposed to be recovering." He's still right there, so she brushes his cheek with the tip of her nose before turning her head enough to press a kiss against his skin. "Thank you, Tony."

"You're welcome. Though according to some sources I have _always_ been a little bit loopy."

"Well, then loopier than usual. I was invested in getting you back to one hundred percent." Pepper breaks off a piece of the lobster meat with her fingers, dips it in the melted butter, and holds it out for Tony. He bends forward to suck the morsel from between her fingertips before offering her a generous hunk of her own.

"Admit it, Potts. You were freaked because you found out from the people at Shield who met us at the hospital that the nurse who crashed our party was actually just a hired assassin. You coped by going psychotic mother hen on my ass."

It was probably true, Pepper silently acknowledges, Until Shield - motivated by the sheer public panic brought on by the scandal - had stepped in and all but put both of them in lockdown while its agents ran down the responsible party, she'd been very reluctant to trust anyone she didn't know personally.

"I was concerned, for very good reasons, Tony. We were both targets by then, and both on the injured list. Besides, I didn't give you any worse crap about your recovery than you gave me about mine."

His eyes go distant for a minute. "I did understand, Pep, even if I was frustrated at the time." He shakes his head, "I still can't believe who exactly our evil supergenius turned out to be."

Pepper swallows and nods her head, then moves closer so that their shoulders are brushing. Evil coding genius is more like it. When considering people who might be responsible, a former employee of Stark Industries hadn't been at the top of Pepper's suspect list.

Abigail Hannon. A former software development specialist who'd worked in the coding department. She'd been hired about a year before she'd started working for Tony. She's been let go at Pepper's recommendation about six months later – the suggestion fueled by numerous supervisor complaints.

"Did I tell you that the mental hospital called me the other day? The shrink seems to think that if I'm willing to pay a visit, Ms Hannon's overall 'mental stability' might benefit from a meeting between the two of us. Now that she's properly medicated, a visit could apparently 'be useful in helping her reestablish the difference between her fantasy world and reality.'" He shrugs, "Well that and she's asked for a chance to apologize in person for my injuries."

"She wants to apologize to _you_?" Pepper asks with a small amount of disbelief. Yeah, sure, Tony's the one who'd almost gotten shot because of the woman's obsession - which she still hasn't quite forgiven him for - but she was the one who was threatened, the one who's life was made a nightmare by this woman's sick obsession…

Not that she has any sort of desire to meet with this woman. Still, she'd think that if anyone is owed an apology for what happened at the press conference, it's her.

"Yes well, that's what I said when I talked to the doctor. But apparently being back in reality is not quite the same as being completely free of old grudges. According to what I've been told, Ms Hannon still believes that she was fired from the job I recommended her for because you disliked her personally, rather than because of poor job performance."

Pepper bares her teeth in a silent snarl. The other woman was holding a grudge against her? "I'm tempted to give her something to really hold a grudge about."

Tony only sighs, then pats her arm in a way she knows he hopes is comforting. "Don't take it so personally, Potts. Hannon is a brilliant programmer but she's also clearly mentally unstable and severely narcissistic. Which I would have noticed when I first recommended her to human resources if I'd been looking at anything other than her coding skills and her bustline..."

Pepper tries to clamp down on her annoyance, because it's going to accomplish nothing constructive. LA is a long way away right now, along with any resident loonies. The danger is past and this whole vacation is supposed to be about both of them relaxing.

Right now she's on a luxury yacht off Barbados, having a special dinner planned for her by the man she loves. She'll be damned if she lets Hannon spoil any more moments between them.

Still she has to ask…"Are you going to go see her?" she asks when she feels more in control of herself. Because something about the idea just makes her skin crawl.

Tony shrugs in response, "I really don't know. God knows that I don't want to, but I probably should. I mean if the doctor didn't think it was necessary to help treat her, I seriously doubt he would have called me."

"I'm not worried about whether it will help her. Will going to see her somehow hurt you, Stark? Because it may sound cruel but right now, that's the only thing that really matters to me."

Tony's expression is wry as he shrugs his shoulders a little. "Pepper, at this point in my life the only thing that's going to actually hurt me is losing you. Nothing else matters that much."

He's absolutely serious. She can see his belief in that statement in his eyes. And instead of letting the moment die as she normally would – with assurances that he won't lose her – she decides it's time to take steps to help settle that fear once and for all.

It's been months; he deserves an actual answer to his proposal.

"Then do what you think is best," she says carefully, as if she's not about to propose something that still leaves her feeling a little – just a little – unsettled. But her feelings on the matter don't mean it's not the right thing to say. "Just remember to pace yourself, all right? I mean, I know that you're mostly recovered now, but they'll be plenty of work to catch up on when we get back, and it's not as if we're going to be out of the news any time soon."

"And why's that?" Tony just looks tired when he meets her eyes. Pepper hates seeing him like this, so much like he was right after she got hurt.

"Well," she says carefully, trusting that she's about to take his mind of anything depressing. "I think the media's just going to get all riled up again when they find out we're engaged." She bites the inside of her cheek while she waits for his response. She doesn't know whether to be hurt or amused when Tony Stark just stares back at her in stunned shock.

He doesn't smile - doesn't say anything in response. He just blinks, almost in slow motion. She waits another second before looking back at the dishes spread out on the table. "Well, you know. Whenever it happens..." For a moment her voice just gives out because she'd expected something SO different from him.

She thought this was what he wanted.

"Do we have any more of the -" Before she can finish the sentence Tony's hands are on her shoulders and he's pulling her forward. His kiss is warm, but it's also hungry, and this time when he pulls back there's a mixture of excitement and glee on his face. "There. Now that my brain's rebooted, would you mind repeating that last bit again?"

"The press is going to have a field day when they find out we're engaged?" she asks more than says. Her voice is just a little breathless.

Tony's smile grows impossibly warmer. "We are? But you didn't get down on one knee. What, I don't even get a ring?"

"Well, since there hasn't been any of that in the few times you've asked, I was beginning to believe it wasn't necessary." Pepper's voice is light with a mixture of excitement and teasing.

Tony leans forward to kiss her lightly on the forehead. "True enough. Though I have to ask…what exactly brought this on?"

He's curious after weeks of quiet, what's brought about this sudden change.

"I just decided that you were right, is all." she answers simply.

"About what exactly?" He raises a brow and tilts his head.

"Just…you're right about us. After all this time, there's really nothing that's going to make us leave each other. And if I trust you to love me, and to be there for me, and to be faithful for me..." She shrugs. "There's really no point in us not getting married, you know? No reason not to."

Tony's eyes shutter for perhaps an eighth of a second, before he nods soberly. "Fair enough. So did you have a date in mind?"

"I was thinking in a year or so. Or would two be better for you?" Pepper maintains her serious expression for just long enough to make Tony start to sweat, and then she can't hide the way her eyes twinkle any more.

Tony's eyes narrow and he reaches forward to tap her nose lightly. "Six months would be acceptable, Potts. Longer than nine and I'm dragging you off to Vegas to have my way with you."

Pepper's lips quirk. "I may usually dress in business suits, but I did dream about my wedding as a little girl, Stark. I'm not saying that I couldn't throw together a wedding in six months, but I don't want to throw together _a_ wedding, I want to plan _our_ wedding." Pepper reaches for her wine glass and takes a sip. "I could agree to nine months though."

"Agreed. For the record we can do the ceremony however you like, Pep. I don't care about what colors you want or what we cater for food afterwards. Though I do request we aim for something at least a little quiet and private – and please, please let's do it as far away as possible from the Paparazzi."

She snuggles into his side, wrapping his arm around her waist for him. It's not an unreasonable request. "How about we hold the ceremony outside the States? Say in Italy?"

He smiles. "That would work. Do you want a religious wedding or a civil one? Because there's a Catholic church near my mom's family's vineyard where I was baptized as a baby." As Tony says this he carefully kisses her forehead, then climbs to his feet. "I just need to grab something from across the room, Love, and then I'll be back."

"Okay." Pepper looks puzzled, but only that, as she scoots to the side to let him up. "I don't really mind what kind of ceremony we have. It's just that I've always had this image of getting married outside at night, with the stars out and thousands of twinkle lights illuminating the garden..." Pepper breaks off, looking just a little self-conscious.

He grins. "If you want to get married in a garden then I know _exactly_ the right place." He crosses over to the closet and pulls out one of his travel bags.

She watches him dig around in the front pocket for several moments, before extracting a small satin covered case. "Speaking of rings... I doubt that you'll want this as your actual engagement ring, but this is an heirloom my Mom would want me to give to you now that you've accepted."

"You don't want to save it for direct blood?" Pepper asks softly as Tony comes back to the table. "I mean, it's not outside the realm of possibility that we might have children someday. It'd be more directly in the family line that way."

Tony shakes his head a little. "Thanks but no. The truth is that it's always been passed down from woman to woman, Pep. Mom would have no issue with me giving it to you since she never had any daughters of her own as long as you have no issue giving it to a daughter or granddaughter someday..."

Pepper watches as he sits back down. "I didn't steal your thunder, did I? Accepting when you hadn't just asked the question? I just thought that it was time I asked, instead of not responding when you did..."

He shakes his head as he hands her the box. "I'm not mad at all, Pepper, just surprised. I always assumed you'd let me know when and if you were ready."

Geeze...this is very utilitarian, isn't it? They're both being so formal. As Pepper thinks about what's just happened, she realizes her reason for marrying him was essentially "meh, why not?" Not exactly an outpouring of deep emotion.

And Tony? He's pulling an irreplaceable heirloom out of a bag. He'd deliberately brought it along just in case.

Pepper sets the box on the table and carefully climbs over Tony's lap. She has his full attention as soon as she straddles his thighs and has his _explicit_ attention when she leans down and teases him with a long, languid kiss.

When their lips part, she stays wrapped around him, lacing her hands behind his head and whispering in his ear, "You're more addictive than Louboutins, Stark. Marry me?"

He laughs, more or less as she meant him to, and then he nods and pulls her down so that she's sitting in his lap instead of kneeling over it. Then he kisses her back, one hand sliding into her hair to hold her still while he more or less has his way with her mouth.

"Any day of the week, Love. And twice on Sunday," is his throaty reply when he finally pulls back.

"Really. Twice?" She leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I would think the one time will be sufficient. Or is this some weird Italian thing?"

Tony's smile is evil, "No, but two weddings would mean two honeymoons. Or that would be my rule if we did it that way."

"But you can have a second honeymoon without having the second wedding," she points out, a contented smile on her face.

He chuckles, "True enough. And your way would undoubtedly double the time spent naked and half the time spent in a damn monkey suit."

"Mmm-hmmm..." Her fingers brush through his hair and scrape at the back of his neck. "So, are you going to put that ring on me, or is that something I'm just going to handle as your assistant?"

He smiles. "As I said the ring is yours, Pepper, but it's your call whether you want to wear it or just keep it for the time being. Either way though, I'd appreciate your opening up the box."

Pepper sighs, and leans backwards and over to reach the case where it's lying on the table. It'd almost be easier to get out of Tony's lap, but that would require getting out of his lap.

The box is plain black satin. It has no jeweler's logo, just a slightly squeaky hinge.

The ring inside is more modern looking than she'd expected for something that's apparently antique. It has a central decent sized diamond, flanked on both sides by sapphires, all set in a silver-gold band with words inscribed in a language that she can't read along the ring's inner curve.

"What does it say?" She holds it up for him to see, just in case he'd never noticed the inscription.

"It's Italian. It means 'My hope,'" Tony tells her simply.

Pepper wants to asks what that means, but as she meets Tony's eyes, she think she knows. It's passed down from mother to daughter...well, if she ever has a daughter, Pepper knows that her hope would be that her daughter would find love. Like she's found it.

"What finger am I supposed to wear this thing on?" she asks softly as she flutters her fingers at him.

"It depends. It should go on your ring finger if you don't mind being buried with just your wedding ring. It should go on your middle finger if you do."

Pepper slips the ring onto her middle finger and holds her hand out for him to admire.

He laces his hand with hers. "Looks like were going to have to do some jewelry shopping the next time we visit port. Unless you'd rather have something custom designed when we get back to Los Angeles?"

"You're the groom to be, so it's your call," she teases. "All I'm really worried about is you giving me something so big I can't lift my hand because of the weight."

Tony's grin is just a little cocky. "Don't be ridiculous, Pepper. Any gem that big would be on a necklace, not on a ring."

She whacks his shoulder lightly. "You just think you're so funny."

Tony's smile just grows. "If that's what you want to believe. I think that you just gave me carte blanche to buy you whatever the hell I damn well please."

"Pretty much yeah, though if you get too ridiculously over-exorbitant or tacky I'll find a suitable way to extract retribution."

"Pepper, I'd never give you anything tacky." Tony stops and looks at her before saying, "Pepper, I'd never give you something tacky to be worn outside the bedroom."

"Thanks for the clarification," she shoots back dryly. "You're such a comfort to me."

"Well, if I didn't, you'd nail me on it later." He leans back against the cushions, sighing in contentment.

"Tony, whether you clarify your points or not, I'm sure I'll still be able to 'nail' you every day of the week." Pepper's grin is evil. "And if you're good, twice on Sundays."

He raises an eyebrow at that. "If I'm good. And what about you being good?"

"I'm always good," she lobs back smoothly as she settles her weight into him. "Wouldn't you agree?"

His arms wrap comfortably around her. "Sure you are. Except the times when you're not. Those times are probably my favorite."

Pepper smiles and closes her eyes. "So, the anniversary of the day we met is also the day I agreed to marry you, right?"

Tony nods, "Two big things to remember and only one day that I have to keep track of. It's a really nice way to hedge my bets."

He surprises a laugh out of her with that comment. "I'm going to have to program Jarvis with a reminder for all the other dates, aren't I?"

He shakes his head. "Probably. Though I do have a suggestion. You want nine months to plan right? So let's get married next year on September 17th."

Pepper blinks. "Why that day in particular?"

He grins. "What, you're saying you've already forgotten the first time that you jumped me, Potts? I'm hurt."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she teases. "I was drugged up."

"Yeah, well Potts you still made the first move, and I have video that proves it."

"You do not!" Pepper's head jerks up, and her eyes are wide as she stares at him in something resembling shock. Her pupils are also slightly dilated and he can see her nipples tightening through her light shirt.

He's a little confused at the reaction, "Pepper, you know that Jarvis keeps video of everything that happens all over the mansion except in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Normally I don't access the footage unless there's a security breach, but it's still there nonetheless."

Well, if the bedroom is off limits, then Pepper supposes he doesn't have their first time... She still wets her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. They've still been in a lot of other rooms than just the bedrooms…

"Pepper, don't worry. Jarvis knows to give us privacy during sex...I mean are you really that freaked out that he has the film of the first time you kissed me?"

"Ooh..." Not a literal jumping then. Her eyes refocus on him. "I'm not freaking out. I just misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?"

"You said the first time I jumped you. I thought you meant the first time we had sex."

"Ah. That we unfortunately don't have any footage of. Though," He quirks an eyebrow. "Do I detect a little...intrigue at the possibility that we did?"

"Possibly." She bites her lip. "What if you did?"

"I'd admit I'm similarly intrigued... making home videos could be a heck of a lot of fun."

Pepper blushes, "Agreed. Though preferably only of the kind that even insane but brilliant hackers can't access."

Tony's face turns serious. "I promise, Pepper. Jarvis and I have already been working on some new security protocols. Anything we made would be on the private access server. No one is ever getting into the mansion like Hannon did again."

"I know." She cups the side of his face. "I love you, Tony Stark."

"I love you too." He smiles a little. "So September 17th? Do we have agreement on an actual wedding date, barring any scheduling problems?"

She nods. "Yeah, I think we do."

He nuzzles into her hand. "Well then I suppose all that's left to do is set up a press conference. Well that and we need to make a phone call to Rhodey to let him know."

"You really want to announce it?" Pepper looks surprised. "I was kinda teasing with the paparazzi remark."

"We can either announce it deliberately, Pep, or get swarmed the first time someone in the press notices that you're wearing an engagement ring. No offense but I'd prefer to try and keep control of the situation."

Pepper sighs heavily, a sound that dissolves into a disgusted growl. Then she nods her head, "You're lucky you're worth all this fuss, Stark. The press drive me stark raving bonkers sometimes."

He shrugs, "I know, I know...you hate the frenzy. Unfortunately it's not something I'll ever be able to change. Consider dealing with them the downside of the very tasteful ring that I'm going to put on your left hand."

"Tony, when I consider what makes all this worthwhile, a ring is the least of it." Her hand slips down his face, over his neck, coming to a rest just to the left of his arc reactor.

He nods and leans his forehead against hers. "I just know what a strain the press can be on both of us, and I wish sometimes that this didn't have come at quite so high a price."

Pepper rubs his shoulder, "I guess that just means that we'll need to take more vacations."

He chuckles. "And here I thought you were getting anxious to get back home."

"I'm getting a little itchy. But I don't think a week or two to ourselves every few months is too much to ask."

He smiles. "In that case, Pep, why don't you make up a list?"

"A list of what?" She regards him curiously.

He snickers. "Start with all the places in Europe you've always wanted to see but never been. I figure after a year or so we can pick another continent."

"After a year? We have to work more than half the year, Tony. Someone has to be responsible for keeping your company afloat."

"I'm not saying we have to spend all of that time out of the office, Potts. Have you never heard the term 'working vacation?' I'm just saying we can both work and play hard."

"I've heard you use the term working vacation in a fashion that you think will help you get what you want." The content smile on Pepper's face takes away any sting her words might have otherwise had. "You're going to have to step up your game, Stark. I'm not going to be so easy to sweet talk anymore."

Tony snorts but makes no reply.

Pepper sighs. "Are you done eating?" She reaches for her wine glass and takes another sip as she holds his eyes over the rim.

He nods. "Yeah. Anything more and I'll probably explode."

She sets the glass down as she leans in to nibble at his neck. "Seems I've heard that warning before..."

He chuckles. "It looks to me like somebody's trolling for dessert."

"Maybe..." He smells incredible, like sun and salt. Pepper pulls the collar of his shirt out of her way and presses her lips to his collarbone. She likes the thought of giving him a hickie.

"Might I suggest we adjourn to the bedroom then?" His voice is husky with quiet laughter.

She sucks on the skin of his neck a moment before replying. "It depends. When I get there do I finally get my key?"

He nods, "Yeah, but for the record, Potts, I'm still on top tonight."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah well, what exactly is new about that?"

He slaps her ass lightly, "Excuse me?! I seem to remember being completely at your mercy both earlier today and for six hours last night."

"You like being at my mercy." She moves back against his hand, rendering her words not an argument but rather a statement.

"On occasion yes. But as you know, I'm also a fan of reciprocity. Now do you want to open that trunk up or not?"

She groans softly and shifts off his lap with a nod.

He follows her toward the bedroom. "Okay here's the game plan: you're free to riffle through the contents of this thing to your heart's content once it's open. And starting tomorrow at dawn it's open season for either of us to use anything that looks interesting inside on the other, barring verbal opt out, of course." He creeps up behind her and presses a kiss to the back of his neck, "For tonight though, I think that you only get to pick three to try out."

"You're so bossy." Pepper shivers than turns to kiss him back.

"I can't help it if that turns you on, Potts." Tony brushes Pepper's hair away from her neck and starts working on leaving his own mark. "Besides, are you really complaining about me letting you pick what intrigues you the most? Because if you are I can always pick three out on my own..."

"Hmmm...also intriguing." She starts walking backwards towards their bed. "Why don't we discuss this some more?"

"Smart ass," he smiles, before charging forward to scoop her up and carry her in to dump her onto the bed with a hungry smile...

Pepper's purr of contentment is the last lucid sound she makes for a very long time.


End file.
